White House press secretary's debut brings news of Guilfoyle's exit

Amna Nawaz:

On her first day at the podium, the new White House press secretary, Katie Zacharia, made news.

Geoff Bennett:

That was by announcing that President Trump had asked Kimberly Guilfoyle, his ambassador to Greece, to resign. The move follows allegations that Guilfoyle asked the political donor to pay a $100,000 credit card bill in exchange for access to senior administration officials.

Our White House correspondent, Liz Landers, was at the briefing today and joins us now.

So, Liz, the news of the Guilfoyle resignation operates on two levels. There's what led to the resignation and the fact that President Trump was willing to part ways with this official, when he has so often stood by others accused of using their public office for personal gain. What more should we know?

Liz Landers:

This was a surprising announcement today from this new White House press secretary, who made this announcement from the podium, and then two hours later, on social media, Ambassador Guilfoyle confirmed that she was resigning.

She wrote that she called the allegations against her false and said that "I intend to vigorously defend my name, my reputation, and my integrity." She went on to say: "I will not allow false accusations to define my decades of public service."

She also said that she will continue to support President Trump. But all of this comes in light of that bombshell Wall Street Journal reporting that came out last week that said that Guilfoyle had engaged in possible improper conduct. Most notably of that was a political donor who said and accused her of trying to bribe him to pay off a $100,000 credit card statement.

And she promised him access to administration officials if he did. The president was asked about this on his way out of the White House today. And he said "I didn't like what I was reading" about what Kim Guilfoyle had been doing.

But this may not be over for Guilfoyle, though. PBS News obtained last week this letter from the Democrats -- the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, who had already sent her a letter saying, please preserve your records related to this, and saying that they wanted to investigate this.

Geoff Bennett:

And, of course, we learned about her parting ways with the administration, her resignation, by way of a very brief White House briefing today, the debut of the new press secretary. You were there. Tell us about it and the new press secretary.

Liz Landers:

Yes, so Katie Zacharia is most recently an adviser to the Trump Media and Technology Group, which runs the president's social media company, TRUTH Social. She's also worked briefly at the Department of Homeland Security. She's also been a frequent conservative commentator on FOX News and sometimes on CNN.

And she's been an ardent defender of President Trump, and she is a MAGA loyalist. She has promoted the falsehood that the 2020 election was stolen. And CNN also found some now deleted social media posts of hers making baseless accusations about Democrats being engaged in pedophilia.

Geoff Bennett:

And what else stood out from her briefing?

Liz Landers:

It was only 14 minutes long, and she only took a handful of questions towards the end.

Zacharia says that she sees her job as highlighting the administration's policy wins for the American people and promoting the president's message.

Katie Zacharia, White House Press Secretary:

My goal is to be able to communicate that in complete tandem with the president, as he is his own best spokesperson and will absolutely be leading the way as with that.

Liz Landers:

President Trump, as they left the White House, was asked what he thought about her performance at the podium. He said he thought she did a great job.

And in that exchange, he was also asked about her credentials. She says that she has been an attorney, and she had to kind of clarify and explain that she has been a practicing lawyer in China before, but she does have her law degree from Pepperdine's law school.

Geoff Bennett:

OK.

I want to ask you as we wrap up our conversation here about this moment last night. It was at a Trump rally in Ohio. There was a protester. You see her there physically assaulted, physically assaulted by a man, by the way. And rather than condemn the violence, the president mocked the protester. That's hard to watch.

I mean, what more do we know about what happened?

Liz Landers:

We're increasingly seeing these protesters interrupting the president's midterm rallies, and this happened yesterday in Youngstown, Ohio.

That woman was wearing a shirt that said 'Release the Epstein Files." And right beside her, this man starts punching her, hitting her directly in the face before law enforcement steps in. Something like this also occurred in San Antonio, Texas, last week at another Trump rally, where protesters were getting beat up.

And actually the sheriff there put out an announcement and said if anybody has any information about these people that were potentially assaulting protesters, please come forward.

Geoff Bennett:

All right, Liz Landers, our thanks to you, as always.

Liz Landers:

Of course.