White House Staffers Horrified Over Katie Zacharia's Debut, Alleged Leaked Texts Reveal: 'She Could Barely Read'

Katie Zacharia's first day as White House Press Secretary was widely criticized online and in the media, but her harshest critics may have come from inside the White House itself.

Alleged newly revealed leaked texts from White House insiders find administration officials panicking over Donald Trump's handpicked successor to Karoline Leavitt, with one going so far as to say the 41-year-old new hire could "barely read."

Zacharia's 14-minute introduction to the White House press corps on October 13 did not go well by most metrics. She accidentally called President Trump her "husband," stumbled through her script and only took three questions from right wing news outlets before shuffling off the podium.

Though President Trump said he thought she did a "great job" in a press gaggle with reporters afterwards, White House insiders reportedly don't share that opinion.

Alleged texts leaked showed one insider saying they felt she hadn't practiced her prepared statement, while another wondered, "Who in the building wanted to see her fail?"

Trump reportedly rushed Zacharia's hire through with little vetting, overriding Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. Reports suggest that Trump picked her because he saw her give Trump-friendly segments on right wing news networks. Before her hire as press secretary, she spent a month in the DHS comms team and had a brief stint at Trump Media.

"Her hiring and the briefing shows this White House is collapsing now that they’re facing real pressure. They have no idea who to hire,” one insider wrote.

That insider also added that Zacharia and the White House in general are facing a personnel crisis as it continues its quagmire war in Iran, writing, "We’re entering wartime, and they’re completely unequipped.”

The newest deluge of leaked texts comes just after MS NOW reported that one insider said Zacharia was in danger of breaking Anthony Scaramucci's record for shortest stint as press secretary. Scaramucci lasted just 11 days as secretary during an infamous stint in 2017.

Scaramucci chimed in as well, joking that "the clock is running" on Zacharia's tenure, which at that point had lasted what he described as "1/11th of a Scaramucci.”

Zacharia's threadbare vetting process has already led to scandal.

Zacharia claimed to be a lawyer despite no evidence of her ever passing a bar exam in the United States — or China, where she claimed to have passed one.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the 41-year old failed the bar exam after she graduated Pepperdine University's law school in 2011. The publication reported that Zacharia worked at Zhong Lun Law Firm in Beijing as an associate. Lawyers reportedly told her she could provide legal analysis there based on her degree and experience.

Claiming to be a lawyer — which Zacharia did in TV appearances — without having passed the bar exam is a crime in some states.