New White House press secretary Katie Zacharia faced sharp criticism after her first briefing on Tuesday, with detractors faulting her for spending more time discussing herself, her husband, and her life as a "working mom" than addressing American soldiers in the Middle East or the economy. The press secretary serves as the administration's chief spokesperson, fielding on-camera questions from the reporters who cover the White House day to day, which is why a first briefing is traditionally watched as an early indication of how an administration will handle the press. Longtime reporter Peter Alexander went further, calling her out for violating the law on just her second day in the job.

On MS NOW, host Stephanie Ruhle cut away from Zacharia less than three minutes into her reading of her opening statement.

Former Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney quipped that the one good thing compared with President Donald Trump was that she was far less engaging than he is.

"The problem is it's not red meat, it's pink slime," veteran newsman John Avlon said of Zacharia. "I mean, there's no substance here. Even with the stuff that's designed to rally the base, because when it's simply red and prepackaged, it has no resonance, it has no credibility. And she said, oh, he's his own best spokesperson, which we expect, right? But that's because her job is not to make news, apparently, or to communicate to the journalists in the room. It is to basically defer to the president and parrot the party line."

Vaughn Hillyard quickly flagged the easy question Fox News' Peter Doocy about whether the United States would continue to share intelligence with Ukraine as the warages on. Intelligence sharing has been one of the primary forms of U.S. support for Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, making it a standard and consequential subject for any press secretary.

"That's a very basic question," he said. "She didn't have an answer. That basic answer should be, 'yes.'"

Alexander noted that he has outlasted nine of the last press secretaries and said his first call will be to the Office of Special Counsel to ask whether Zacharia's podium remarks qualify as a Hatch Act violation for promoting Republican politics and campaigns. The Office of Special Counsel is the independent federal agency responsible for investigating Hatch Act complaints.

Enacted in 1939, the Hatch Act restricts political campaign activity by most federal employees, with exemptions for the president and vice president. The Hatch Act itself outlines no punishments; previously, presidents with ethics guidelines would ask a person to step down or fire them, but that has not happened in the Trump administrations.

"You'll remember, past press secretaries would often go out of their way to say they didn't want to violate the Hatch Act," Alexander recalled. "They didn't want to be politicking as their duty as a civil servant there. As a representative of this administration, you're not allowed to do that absent the vice president and the president. She obviously did it without solicitation. She offered it up a series of political statements in her first comments."

His second point was that no one asked one of the questions that is generally posed to a press secretary at a first briefing: "Do you view your primary role here as speaking for the president or promoting his interests, or are you committed to providing the unvarnished truth to the American people?"

A different question has recently been raised as well: whether they will pledge not to lie to the press.

One White House official already told MS NOW, "Getting behind the podium is tough, but she got off on the wrong foot. She needs to get much better fast, otherwise she'll break Scaramucci's record." The remark was a reference to Anthony Scaramucci, who worked in the Trump White House for 11 days. Scaramucci served as White House communications director in July 2017.

Source: Alternet | Video: https://youtu.be/NaE_0etvxE4