Megyn Kelly Calls Donald Trump's Five-Day Press Secretary a Rare 'Misfire'

Megyn Kelly said Donald Trump made a rare mistake in picking Katie Zacharia as White House press secretary. Zacharia was pushed out after five days.

On Monday's episode of The Megyn Kelly Show, the former Fox News anchor praised Trump's usual judgment on personnel. Then she faulted this choice, which she described as Trump's own. She also compared Zacharia's farewell tribute to the president to the fawning of Russian state media.

"I'm surprised that Trump made the pick because he's normally extremely smart when it comes to a pick like this," Kelly said. "He's normally spot on and he can see from a mile away who will work well on television, which is really what this job is."

She called the hire "a misfire and a rare one for him for this particular role."

Megyn Kelly Compares Zacharia's Exit to Russian Media

Kelly said Zacharia was undone partly by "the over the top sycophancy. It was too much." She pointed to her own contentious interviews with Vladimir Putin and said that in Russia, coverage is "over the top fawning about how amazing Vladimir Putin is."

"That is how she sounded, even as she was leaving the administration," Kelly said.

As she left, Zacharia called Trump "such a kind, wonderful, gracious, thoughtful, enthusiastic, and hardworking man — I wish more Americans appreciated him," NBC News reported.

"I think while the president, I'm sure loved hearing it. He is too savvy to not clue in to how it undermined her credibility," Kelly said.

The Five-Day Timeline

Zacharia replaced Karoline Leavitt. Trump announced in August that Leavitt was leaving; she said she wanted more time with her two young children. Zacharia's tenure, as reported by CBS News and NBC News:

• October 9: Trump announced Zacharia as press secretary.
• Last Tuesday: She gave her first and only briefing. It ran about 10 minutes of prepared remarks, and she took questions from three outlets: Breitbart, Fox News and the Daily Mail.
• Thursday: On Fox News' Hannity, she said she "didn't retake the bar." CBS News reported that she failed the California bar exam in 2011.
• Friday: She was out. A senior official said she was "transitioning into a new role."

Sean Hannity pressed her on calling herself a lawyer. "Why not just say I went to Pepperdine Law School and then took a different career path and I took the bar once and didn't pass it," he asked.

"I had four kids in six years. It was never my intent to go into the practice of law," Zacharia replied.

Kelly said that Trump "appears to have been fooled by this line. He believed she was an attorney and described her as one and then looked silly."

What Kelly Said About Susie Wiles and Maria Bartiromo

Kelly also relayed reports about what happened behind the scenes. She cited reporting in Politico and elsewhere that White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles helped make the Hannity interview happen after seeing that Zacharia "really wasn't ready for prime time," in Kelly's words. One Politico source called the interview a "sanctioned hit," according to the Daily Beast.

The White House denies it. White House communications director Steven Cheung called the account "speculation," and Fox News said Wiles "had nothing to do with the booking," The Daily Beast reported.

Kelly said Axios reported that Trump first wanted Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo for the job but she signaled she was not interested. According to Kelly's account of the Axios report, the Zacharia hire was solely Trump's decision, made with strong input from Natalie Harp, whom Kelly described as Trump's personal assistant, and Trump told Wiles about it afterward. Summing up the reports more broadly, Kelly said Wiles did not bless the appointment and "kind of said, all right, fine," because the press secretary works for the president.

How Zacharia Compares With Past Press Secretaries

Zacharia's five days are even shorter than the 11 days Anthony Scaramucci spent as White House communications director in 2017, CBS News noted.

Kelly measured Zacharia against the women who held the podium before her, saying the job demands both a polished television presence and the ability to fight with the press. "That was the beauty of Karoline Leavitt. She had both," she said, and she put Kayleigh McEnany in the same category. Not every successful press secretary fit the Fox News mold, Kelly added, pointing to Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who she said "sparred and was very strong during the first Trump administration."

"We want to see the press secretary put the press in their place," Kelly said.

What Happens Next

The White House has not named a permanent replacement, and the podium is empty two weeks before the November 3 midterms. Trump's approval rating stands at 38 percent, according to PolitiKool's polling average.

"So hopefully, that's a very short chapter," Kelly said.