Zacharia gets off to bumpy start in brief, unusual first press briefing

Newly-minted press secretary lasts less than 15 minutes in awkward debut before the White House press corps

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White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia beat an abrupt retreat from the James Brady Briefing Room after just 14 minutes Tuesday morning, during an awkward appearance in which she mixed up the man who hired her with the man to whom she is married and spent the majority of her debut on prepared remarks filled with praise for the president.

When it came time to take questions, Zacharia first called on a reporter from the right-wing Breitbart News, who was in a seat normally used by White House staff that her predecessor repurposed for “new media” outlets that are generally friendly to the administration.

She then turned to Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy, who asked her if the U.S. has halted sharing intelligence with Ukraine amid Trump’s blow-up at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Next up on what appeared to be a prepared list of reporters was a correspondent from the Daily Mail, who first asked about whether Trump was still considering firing Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle after a spate of embarrassing headlines about her conduct before and during her tenure in Athens.

But it was a softball follow-up from the Mail that left Zacharias sputtering and led her to flee the room.

“The idea of not spending evenings with my kid kids are is completely unacceptable,” she said, before confusing her spouse with her boss.

She attempted to recover from the laughter in the room by pivoting to more praise for Trump, who she called “ the most family-friendly president we've ever had.”

“He has hired more women with families, and the fact that he knew I had four kids and he knew that this job would be demanding, and still placed his trust in me, shows that I know I'm capable of being able to step up to that,” she said.

The president was not scheduled to depart for Alaska for several hours.

One former Trump administration official who remains close to people serving in the administration texted The Independent to declare Zacharia’s debut “a train wreck” after previously describing her as a “joke hire” who’d likely be “gone in six months.”