WASHINGTON — New White House press secretary Katie Zacharia stumbled out of the gate during her first press briefing, calling a halt to proceedings after just 14 minutes and taking questions from three reporters.
Eight minutes of Zacharia’s introduction to a national audience was taken up by a monologue touting President Trump’s accomplishments before she closed the show by announcing that Trump had asked for the resignation of Ambasasdor to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle.
“She’s nervous,” Florida-based body language expert Dr. Lillian Glass told The Post. “But she’s very monotone. She’s emphasizing the wrong words when she’s communicating what she has to say, and she needs some basic training.”
“She was looking down the whole time,” Glass went on. “She wasn’t really connecting with the audience. There was some nervous smiling that [was] not congruent with what you should be smiling about.”
Zacharia pulled the plug after getting tongue-tied over a question about how she was juggling being a mother of four with the notoriously demanding job.
“So my president, excuse me, my husband,” she said during the quick slip-up, adding: “That’s a — that’s a good one.”
Photos of the press secretary’s notes indicated she had pre-planned which of the three reporters — representing Breitbart, Fox News and the Daily Mail — she would call on, but that also didn’t prevent her from stumbling over their names.
President Trump announced Zacharia as the successor to Karoline Leavitt last week, with Monday being her first official day in the job.
Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, now a co-host on Fox News midday program “Outnumbered,” recalled that she took about two weeks before briefing the media after being tapped for the role.
