President Donald Trump's new press secretary, Katie Zacharia, held her first White House briefing on Tuesday, days after formally starting a job in which she succeeds Karoline Leavitt. The briefings are among the most visible on-the-record exchanges between an administration and the reporters covering it, offering a recurring public forum for questions about its policies and decisions.

Trump has described Zacharia as a loyalist, and she is known for promoting a number of bizarre conspiracy theories. She has appeared on Fox News, where the network introduced her as an "attorney" — a label that has drawn scrutiny, as there is no evidence she has ever been admitted to the bar or passed the bar exam, a prerequisite for practicing law in the United States.

Criminal defense attorney Scott Greenfield, who writes at the blog "Simple Justice," said he searched the California bar database, where Zacharia would have been listed had she been admitted, and found no record of her name.

There had been a chance that members of the White House Press Corps would go easy on Zacharia given that it was her first briefing. Reporters from CNN, MS NOW and Politico — who had been briefly banned — were back in the press room, making her debut an early test of how the administration manages access for outlets it had previously excluded.

MS NOW's Vaughn Hillyard arrived with modest expectations, doubting he would be called on for a question, host Stephanie Ruhle urged him to think positively. He joked that he was certain to score a one-on-one interview with the president next.

Zacharia, who spread the so-called "Pizzagate" conspiracy theory — a debunked claim that Democratic officials ran a child-abuse ring out of a Washington, D.C. pizzeria — that nearly led to a mass shooting, took the podium several minutes late. The event was scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. but started roughly 15 minutes behind schedule.

She opened by harking back to the first-ever Trump White House press briefing, in which Sean Spicer maintained that the inauguration crowd had been the biggest "of all time." He then added, "both in person and on time."

According to Zacharia, the Ohio arena was "overflowing" with enthusiasm. She claimed it was "energy and excitement never seen before in the history of midterms thanks to President Trump," and called it a "blockbuster rally" with "thousands" of supporters. Photos and videos from the event showed a sparse crowd — among the most poorly attended of Trump's rallies — with large sections of empty seats beside him.

MS NOW pulled its broadcast from Zacharia's statement less than three minutes into the remarks she read about herself and the midterm campaigns. Former Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney said the press secretary works for the American people, not for Trump, and that promoting the president's rallies is not part of the job. Maloney added that the role is not about her.

Reporters quickly pressed Zacharia with tough questions about the firing of Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former Fox News host and longtime Trump ally, and Zacharia said Trump had asked her to resign. Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked whether the United States had stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine; Zacharia did not appear to have an answer.

The briefing lasted under 15 minutes.

CNN commentator Scott Jennings had also been considered for the job but did not get it.