A record for brevity

Katie Zacharia, White House press secretary, lasted about as long as Madonna did at Dunkin' Donuts in the late nineteen-seventies. She has just set a new American record for shortest tenure in the role.

Zacharia's thin résumé

Zacharia brought a gossamer résumé in communications: a brief stint as a commentator at Newsmax and less than two months as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security.

A history of false claims

Zacharia called John Podesta, the former Clinton and Obama Administration adviser, a pedophile, which was both false and unkind.

The fourteen-minute briefing

Zacharia's one and only appearance in the White House press room took place on October thirteenth. It lasted fourteen minutes. She wore a pained smile and stumbled nervously through a written script.

What she announced

Zacharia took questions from Breitbart, Fox News, and the Daily Mail and delivered a terse announcement that Kimberly Guilfoyle, the U.S. Ambassador to Greece, would now be pursuing other career opportunities.

A slip of the tongue

At one point during the briefing, Zacharia referred to her husband as my president.Jen Psaki, who held the same job for Joe Biden, remarked that the briefing was basically an SNL skit except it wasn't.

“was basically an SNL skit . . . except it wasn't.”

The unravelling

After it was revealed that Zacharia had overstated her status as an attorney, she was not an attorney, and after a peculiar and disastrous appearance with Sean Hannity on Fox News, she was out.

Scaramucci's perspective

Anthony Scaramucci, who lasted ten days as White House communications director in the early days of the first Trump Presidency, said the universe did Zacharia a favor.

“the universe did her a favor. She shouldn't be in that job.”

Scaramucci's own brief tenure

In July two thousand seventeen, Scaramucci called The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza complaining about a tweet citing a senior White House official.

Scaramucci's explosive call

With the reporter's tape rolling, Scaramucci charged into a long string of invective and threats.

“fucking paranoid schizophrenic”

Why Scaramucci found relief

Scaramucci told me that after his firing, there was life after the White House press room. He didn't blame the firing on anyone but himself. The firing came with some level of relief, he said.

“I didn't blame the firing on anyone but me.”

Working for Trump

When asked why there was relief, Scaramucci simply asked, Have you ever worked for Donald Trump? He said Trump is similar to the way he was, maybe more unhinged now, with more lackeys around him.

“Have you ever worked for Donald Trump?”