Trump’s short-lived White House press secretary has fired back at a Fox News star for grilling her on national television the day before she was laid off.
Katie Zacharia, 41, joined Newsmax host Rob Finnerty to discuss her contentious Fox News interview with Sean Hannity, which saw her leave her new role just hours later.
In the interview, Hannity questioned Zacharia about her law credentials and social media posts she had shared that appeared to suggest that she was an attorney. Zacharia did not pass the bar exam in the U.S. Instead, she joined the Zhong Lun Law Firm in Beijing as an associate on its international practice team.
On Tuesday on Newsmax, Finnerty told Zacharia that he was “shocked by the Hannity treatment” and questioned whether Zacharia believed ”that Fox did this on purpose” due to “someone in the White House, I don’t know.”
Zacharia said she was “just as perplexed about what happened, specifically with Sean Hannity.”
According to Zacharia, Hannity’s team previously offered her a role as a California ”man on the street” at Fox, which would see her traveling the state and speaking to voters about Gov. Gavin Newsom.
She said she was “never asked back on his show after my time at the Department of Homeland Security, though I pitched a number of topics to them,” she said, referencing her work as deputy assistant secretary for public affairs from February to April 2026.
She claimed that Fox reached out “aggressively” as she became the White House press secretary.
Opens in new windowShe added, “Because I had had a very friendly rapport with Sean, and he had even made very backing statements about me on Tuesday, October 13th, really coming to my defense, I was not prepared for the hostility that I received.”
The 41-year-old hinted, however, that she would return to the show, saying, “Look, I never back away from a fight.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to Fox News for comment.
Hannity did come to Zacharia’s defense after her first press conference, saying during a Fox News segment that an “abusively biased, corrupt news media” was not interested in engaging with the press secretary in good faith.
“They are out for blood. Zacharia has been mocked. She’s been attacked over her appearance, her hair, the way she spoke. They questioned her intelligence, her credentials. They even asked about her bar exam,” Hannity said at the time.
Still, despite Finnerty’s theory about her departure, Zacharia has remained loyal to the Trump administration. She told Newsmax that if Trump approached her about the job, she would have another go as press secretary.
“I don’t know if I’d say I want the old job back, though if the president asked, as he did before, I’d take it,” Zacharia said. “I would take a job working with the president… What I can say is there are a lot of exciting things ahead.”
