Candace Owens Says New White House Press Secretary Should Be Fired on Day One

Candace Owens said on her show Tuesday that Katie Zacharia, the new White House press secretary, should lose her job after one briefing. Owens said Zacharia was not chosen on merit, and she guessed that President Donald Trump wanted "a cute girl" for the job.

Owens is a conservative commentator who was once one of Trump's loudest backers. She aimed at the staffer and at what she called the movement's "neocon" turn, not at Trump's whole presidency. Even so, she spoke as someone who has left the camp. Looking back to Trump's first term, she said: "You couldn't catch me wearing one ever today," meaning a MAGA hat.

"It's awful. She should be fired on day one," Owens said.

What Candace Owens Said About Katie Zacharia

Zacharia gave her first briefing Tuesday morning. She took over from Karoline Leavitt, who left the job at the end of August after having her second child. Owens played part of the opening and said it looked like "a true Saturday Night Live skit."

"She's just reading the entire thing, including her own name," Owens said. "If she got up there and she froze and forgot her own name, then she should not have been selected for this position."

Owens then said why she thought Zacharia got the job, and she presented it as a guess. "It seems like he's just trying to find a cute girl to fill the role," she said. "I'm going to guess actually there's going to be like donors somehow involved in that." She added: "She was not selected based on a meritocracy."

What the Briefing Actually Showed

The opening doesn't match Owens's description. In the clip Owens played, Zacharia did not say her name at all. She began: "I am so honored to work for President Trump and the American people as a new White House press secretary." The "Hi. I am..." introduction heard on the episode was Owens doing an impression of her.

Owens was right that the briefing leaned heavily on a script. Zacharia "kept her eyes mostly on her prepared remarks," the Daily Beast reported. The briefing lasted about 14 minutes. She took questions from three reporters and then ended the session, saying the president was about to leave for Alaska. Her prepared remarks included Trump's Monday rally in Youngstown, Ohio, and a new Navy submarine repair center in Cleveland.

Katie Zacharia's Bar Exam Answer

Owens also turned to a Business Insider story headlined "Trump's new press secretary was asked where she passed the bar. Her answer raised more questions." Her question was simple: "What state did you pass the bar? This isn't hard."

When a reporter asked which state's bar exam Zacharia had passed, she answered, "When I moved to China," Business Insider reported. Bar exams are given in person by individual states. Zacharia does not appear in the State Bar of California's attorney database, even though she has lived and worked in that state, and she is not in the D.C. Bar's member directory. In a statement, she said she "practiced international transaction law, with all the appropriate credentials." She did not say whether she had passed a bar exam anywhere.

On one point, Owens went further than the record. She said journalists "can't confirm that she graduated law school." According to the same report, Zacharia earned a bachelor's degree from Pepperdine University in 2007 and a law degree from Pepperdine's Caruso School of Law in 2011. She later worked as an associate at Zhong Lun Law Firm in Beijing.

How the Last Three Trump Press Secretaries Compare

Owens contrasted Zacharia with Kayleigh McEnany, whom she called a "star" because "She graduated Harvard with a law degree." McEnany is a Harvard Law graduate. Owens's view of Leavitt was harsher: "I just felt that she was gaslighting us at all times." She added, "we were kind of making the transition into the neocon movement."

What Happens Next

The White House has not said whether Zacharia holds a law license anywhere, beyond her own statement. Owens said she plans to go on maternity leave within a few episodes. Zacharia's next briefings will be the first real test of whether Tuesday's short, scripted start was a one-off.