Katie Zacharia confirms she never passed bar exam, defends first briefing

Of course, at the White House this week, they brought out a new press secretary, and a lot of folks have been reacting to her debut, and she had her first introductory White House press conference, and then folks are naturally wanting to know more about her and also her background. I know President Trump, when he introduced her, he called her an attorney, and a lot of folks have been having questions around that. So she spoke about it last night. She did an interview on Fox News with Sean Hannity. You said you consulted with many people and they advised you that it was okay to call yourself a lawyer but not an attorney, correct? Correct. Okay, there's a report out tonight that showed 15 social media posts where you identify yourself as an attorney. I think they were retweets and I corrected the record and said that those not endorsing the title. They were retweets of a title that had been given. No, look, that is a very tough room. So, it sounds like there's still some questions. So, let's bring in host Shannon Bream, who is in D.C. And I'm sure you saw there's been a lot of reactions to her debut. It's usually when we get a new press secretary, everybody's trying to size them up and figure out what's going on. But, is there a difference? Attorney? Lawyer? Especially, yeah. Well, and that's the thing. I am a lawyer who went to law school, passed the bar, did practice. but there are those who will say if you've gone to law school then that qualifies you to use one of those terms you know it strikes me too as funny as there are questions about um you know one of the top campaign um candidates out there right now is El Sayed out in Michigan and he is somebody who went to medical school but there are questions about did he see patients what did he do afterwards and um it doesn't seem like there's nearly as much interest in his post-medical school situation with passing boards and seeing patients as there is with Katie. I don't know. It was not a great start. It is a really tough job to follow Caroline Leavitt, who seemed like such a natural in the role. But the last thing you want to do is generate any controversy or any questions about yourself, because you're supposed to be out there sharing the president's message. And it's a distraction. And I think for him, probably a frustration if it's not about his policies. And of course, this might be a little different because I think she's used that, right? She's saying, oh, I'm a lawyer, I'm a lawyer. And then also she was asked, where did you get your law degree from, or where did you pass the bar? And she said, China. And then that got some, so I think this has kind of snowballed, and that's why it's become a bigger conversation. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And she says she misheard the question about where she practiced or where she passed the bar. She did legally consult in China, as my understanding is that she was being used to do analysis, not legal advice. And for a lot of people, that's gonna sound like splitting hairs. But again, if you're having to explain the issue, it's a huge distraction. So we'll see then what happens next. Who do you have on Sunday? Well, Tim Kaine is one of our folks. He's a top Democrat on foreign relations. We've got a lot to talk about with Ukraine and Iran and the diesel deal with Putin and all those kinds of things. And we've got two pollsters too, Kellyanne Conway, Celinda Lake. They've been doing it for decades. Do the Republicans have real hope that maybe their voters are not talking to pollsters? Like, What can we make of the numbers at this point? We'll do a deep dive with those two. Yeah, because there's always a little bit of suspicions when it comes to polls and are they accurate. Because sometimes it seems differently once it comes time to actually voting. Thank you, Shannon. We appreciate it. And we will see you on Sunday. Good to see you, Alex.