Katie Zacharia, the new White House press secretary, confirmed on Thursday that she had never passed a bar exam or been an “attorney,” even while maintaining in her first extended interview since taking the job that she had not misrepresented her legal career.
Four days into her new role, Ms. Zacharia appeared on “Real America’s Voice” before a friendly interviewer, addressing some of the controversies already swirling around her. She explained why her debut briefing was so short and why she seemed unprepared. She also revealed who she hoped might play her on “Saturday Night Live.”
The interview was conducted by one of the Trump administration’s favorite right-wing influencers, Jack Posobiec, who rose to prominence online by stoking conspiracies about pedophilia and Democratic elites — theories that Ms. Zacharia once helped spread.
In the interview, Ms. Zacharia said she had sat for a bar exam but failed. Despite that, Mr. Trump has described her as “an attorney.” The president has over the years repeatedly ridiculed Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris for failing a bar exam (both women eventually passed).
Ms. Zacharia has identified herself in the news media as a “lawyer,” and much of her defense of how she has represented herself seemed to rest on what she maintained was the difference between a “lawyer” and an “attorney.”
Many legal experts have said this week that because she does not have a license to practice law, she is neither.
Under California law, “one has to be licensed by the State Bar to practice law or hold oneself out as entitled to do so,” said Jeremy Fogel, a retired federal judge who leads the Berkeley Judicial Institute. “A person who has graduated from law school obviously has legal training, but the law doesn’t authorize them to represent that they are an attorney or a lawyer.”
Ms. Zacharia told The New York Times on Wednesday evening that she was once advised by a president of Pepperdine University that it was OK for her to identify as a lawyer on television. She told Mr. Posobiec on Thursday that she “consulted for a very long time many people in the field” and was told it was “absolutely” acceptable to call herself a lawyer.
“I never came across as someone who was an attorney at law,” she said.
In her brief conversation with The Times, Ms. Zacharia declined to say which president of Pepperdine had advised her. She graduated from law school there in 2011. Andrew K. Benton was the university’s president at that time. In 2019, Jim Gash became the president.
Mr. Benton said in a phone call on Thursday that he was not the one who advised her, though he did call her “a young woman of high integrity.”
A representative for Mr. Gash said “he does not comment on private conversations,” but released a statement from him: “Pepperdine is proud to count Katie among our alumni, former colleagues and friends. As she takes on this significant responsibility, we pray that God will grant her wisdom and courage. We look forward to seeing her use her incredible gifts and extensive experience in service to our nation.”
In the interview with Mr. Posobiec, Ms. Zacharia also described the harried process of her hiring, hinting that she wasn’t really ready for what was about to happen when she stepped to the White House lectern for the first time.
She said she was taking her young son to a pumpkin patch last Wednesday when she got a phone call from the president.
“I was very excited by this phone call from the president, and basically, in short order, flew out on Thursday to meet with him on Friday, and accepted the job on Friday,” she said.
The next day, she said she flew back to California to “pack up all my suitcases, because I was only in D.C. with a carry-on bag at a hotel, and packed up two suitcases.”
Monday was a federal holiday, “but he asked me to be in office on Monday, and Monday I showed up,” she said. The next morning, she was standing before a room of journalists.
“Typically, Jack, briefs are in the afternoon, 1 p.m., 1:30 p.m., where the press secretary has ample amount of time” to prep, she said.
“I woke up at 3 in the morning on Tuesday to prepare with what I had,” she added.
She took questions for less than six minutes and from only three outlets. She said this was because her new boss was scheduled to depart the White House later that morning, and she figured he’d want some quality time with the press, too.
“It was absolutely my goal to keep it short, considering he is his own best spokesperson, and he would love, and does love, gaggling with the media as he goes to Marine One, and so I wanted to give ample deference, and not barge into his time,” she explained.
The press secretary was upbeat in her interview with Mr. Posobiec, but did seem to understand that she was in the center of a full blaze media bonfire.
“I’m not watching anything right now, except what he’s doing and focusing on, what the president’s up to, and trying to amplify that,” she said. “I do not want to see any of the other X, or Instagram, or TV right now.”
Mr. Posobiec surmised that “Saturday Night Live” was likely to take a whack at her this weekend and asked whom she would like to be portrayed by.
“I know it’s coming, yes,” she said. “Who would I like to have play me? Maybe a Scarlett Johansson type character.”
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