Sean Spicer on Katie Zacharia's ouster as press secretary

Channel: CBS News

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:00] Hi, I'm Lindsey Reiser. We're following

[0:02] up on the breaking news out of the White

[0:03] House. Katie Zakhary has been ousted of

[0:06] her role of press secretary. She was

[0:08] fired after less than a week on the job.

[0:10] A White House aide tells CBS News

[0:12] Zakhary has spent the week unusually

[0:14] isolated and didn't function as a press

[0:16] secretary. Earlier today, President

[0:19] Trump told reporters he had encouraged

[0:20] her to reconsider the job.

[0:23] >> She's been treated uh

[0:25] I would say

[0:27] pretty nastily. And I said to Katie just

[0:30] 2 minutes ago, I said, "Katie,

[0:32] you know, you don't have to do this if

[0:33] you don't want to."

[0:34] She said, "This is a lot

[0:36] tougher." I said, "Welcome to the world

[0:38] of Trump."

[0:40] >> Naval officer and former White House

[0:41] press secretary in President Trump's

[0:42] first administration, Sean Spicer, joins

[0:44] me now. And Sean, you had told my

[0:47] colleague Errol Barnett that it's a

[0:48] really tough job um that that some of it

[0:51] is trial by fire

[0:54] um but that her kindness could do

[0:56] wonders for her. You also, after her

[0:58] first press briefing, had said that you

[1:00] felt bad for her. Can you elaborate on

[1:02] that?

[1:04] >> Yeah, look, I I had a very very

[1:06] difficult first outing myself, so I tend

[1:08] to tend to have a little sympathy for

[1:09] people who go on after me knowing the

[1:11] challenges uh of both the job itself and

[1:14] the demanding nature of this president.

[1:16] He expects a lot from his folks.

[1:18] Uh and clearly Katie got thrown into the

[1:19] deep end. She started on a federal

[1:22] holiday and the next morning had to

[1:24] brief at 9:00 a.m. I I don't know how

[1:27] she possibly thought that that would

[1:28] work out well. And coming from the

[1:31] background that she had, I I noted I

[1:33] wrote a column about it today. Look, I'd

[1:35] been in the military for over 20 years.

[1:36] I'd worked for 10 different members of

[1:38] Congress, served in the Bush White

[1:39] House. I came in with at least an

[1:41] understanding of a lot of government

[1:43] policies, an awareness of different

[1:44] departments and agencies. It's a lot for

[1:46] anybody to handle, never mind somebody

[1:48] who hasn't served in in government

[1:50] before at a senior level.

[1:52] Um and then for this president who has a

[1:55] level of intensity and scrutiny that

[1:57] I've never seen in government before

[1:59] Um was going to make this challenging

[2:01] from the jump.

[2:04] >> You also in terms of the timing, I know

[2:06] that she had told Sean Hannity that she

[2:09] didn't feel as prepared as possible. He

[2:11] gave a follow-up and said, "Are you

[2:13] saying that you you essentially blame

[2:14] the staff for not preparing you as

[2:16] well?" And she didn't quite take that

[2:17] bait, but it sort of sounded like she

[2:19] was teetering there on the edge.

[2:22] I mean how crucial was that time slot

[2:25] because take me through what all the

[2:27] preparation is to prep for one of those

[2:30] briefings.

[2:32] >> Yeah, I mean look, generally speaking, I

[2:33] used to get up at 5:00 in the morning. I

[2:35] would prep until 7:00 on my own, then my

[2:36] staff would come in. We'd do an hour or

[2:39] two, then senior staff would come in,

[2:40] the National Security Council staff, the

[2:42] National Economic staff, the legislative

[2:45] staff, the counsels and give you the

[2:46] latest on issues in their purview. And

[2:48] then I would go sit with the president

[2:49] for a while and say, "This is what we

[2:51] believe we're going to get asked. This

[2:53] is the response that we think is

[2:54] appropriate." And he would critique it,

[2:56] update it to his voice. The idea that

[2:58] you think you could brief at 9:30 a.m.

[3:00] and have enough time to get all that

[3:01] after your first day being a federal

[3:03] holiday, where the you know, a lot of

[3:06] that staff on the career side just isn't

[3:08] around. I I just don't know how you

[3:11] thought there was that much runway. Not

[3:13] that I'm blaming her. And by the way, I

[3:15] I don't necessarily like I heard that

[3:16] answer on Hannity. I don't think she was

[3:18] blaming the staff so much as just saying

[3:20] having there's there's no one that could

[3:22] prepare in that amount of time. You get

[3:24] the briefing book late. And frankly, she

[3:26] got it a day at bed, right? I mean on

[3:28] Monday. Well, you've got to deal with

[3:30] all the issues Tuesday morning, whether

[3:31] it's Ukraine, Iran, new economic news,

[3:34] politics with respect to the midterms

[3:37] coming up. All those things you've got

[3:39] to be at the top of your game every day.

[3:42] And I I just I think not knowing was

[3:46] part of the problem. I would have come

[3:48] in and said, "Mr. President,

[3:49] how about this? How about we push the

[3:51] briefing back till about 1:00, I get

[3:53] some quality time with you, or we push

[3:54] it back a day because I need to get up

[3:56] to speed. I don't even know how to log

[3:58] into my computer, or have my badge

[3:59] ready, or all of the machinations that

[4:02] anyone deals with when getting a new

[4:03] job. So, I I didn't read it the same way

[4:06] with respect to the staff not preparing

[4:08] her. I just don't think there was enough

[4:10] time. And, you know, part of this is to

[4:13] make sure that you go out with your best

[4:15] foot forward. I I clearly, like I said,

[4:17] I feel sympathy for her having a very

[4:19] difficult first day myself, but if you

[4:22] ever notice, my second briefing was 79

[4:24] minutes long. I took every question on a

[4:26] variety of issues. I had been preparing

[4:28] for that day for over 2 weeks. Mock

[4:30] briefings, briefings from staff and

[4:32] subject matter experts. So, you know,

[4:35] th- this is not to be taken lightly. And

[4:37] the job of the press secretary, by the

[4:38] way, I always tell people that 15 to 20%

[4:41] is the briefing, the behind-the-scenes

[4:43] stuff, the meetings,

[4:44] uh the updates, the coordination that

[4:46] goes on, and the rollouts, the

[4:48] announcements. That's the 80% that

[4:50] people never see.

[4:53] >> What do we learn from this? What What

[4:54] would be your advice to the

[4:55] administration?

[4:58] >> Well, I I I I think two things. Think

[4:59] very carefully about you like the

[5:01] president values somebody who can speak

[5:04] uh on his behalf. Katie met that

[5:06] challenge. She was her She has a long

[5:08] history of going out there, talking

[5:10] about the America First agenda, its

[5:12] policies, and defending President Trump.

[5:14] That's great. But, I think making sure

[5:16] that they have the policy chops to go

[5:18] along with that, to understand the

[5:19] issues, and the understanding of how

[5:22] government operates, how different

[5:23] departments and Congress and outside

[5:25] stakeholders all interact with the White

[5:27] House,

[5:28] uh to to move an agenda forward.

[5:32] >> All right, Sean Spicer. Thank you so

[5:33] much for your time, and CBS News can

[5:35] confirm that Zacharias is expected to

[5:37] start a new role in the administration

[5:39] soon. This is according to sources

[5:40] familiar with the discussion. Zacharias,

[5:43] her husband, and her kids have been

[5:44] invited to dinner with the vice

[5:45] president tonight.