Report Says Susie Wiles Set Up Katie Zacharia's 7-Minute Fox Interview Before 5-Day Exit
Updated
Updated · The Independent · Oct 17
Report Says Susie Wiles Set Up Katie Zacharia's 7-Minute Fox Interview Before 5-Day Exit
3 articles · Updated · The Independent · Oct 17
Summary
Politico reported that White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles helped arrange Katie Zacharia’s Thursday Fox News appearance, which one source called a “sanctioned hit” hours before the press secretary was fired Friday.
The 7-minute Sean Hannity interview zeroed in on Zacharia’s troubled 14-minute debut briefing, where she took only three questions, and on her legal credentials after she acknowledged she attended law school but never passed the bar.
White House and Fox News officials denied Wiles engineered the booking or the firing, saying Hannity chooses his own guests and arguing Zacharia’s own performance had already doomed her.
Zacharia, 41, lasted just five days in the role; Trump said he urged her to reconsider staying, while she later praised him publicly after officials confirmed her dismissal.
The episode lands as Wiles herself faces internal speculation about her standing, even after Trump said there was “zero chance” he would replace his longest-serving chief of staff.