'The View' Co-Hosts Felt 'Secondhand Embarrassment' Watching Katie Zacharia's 'Mess' of a Debut: 'She Couldn't Read'

During the Thursday, October 14, broadcast of The View, Ana Navarro and Sunny Hostin dissected White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia’s 14-minute “mess” of a debut briefing, focusing on her extreme nervousness, reading ability and overall competence or lack thereof.

Navarro pointed out that under President Donald Trump, a press secretary needs specific traits. She stated, "You need to be able to lie, but you need to be able to lie with confidence, not looking nervous.”

She directly mocked Zacharia’s reading delivery, saying, "She couldn't read. I mean, there's second graders that read at a higher level than she does.”

Navarro called the briefing a "mess" and noted that even though Zacharia took questions from "hand-picked, curated right-wing media outlets asking her softballs," she still couldn't answer them properly.

She joked about how brief the presser was, saying, "I have literally had bouts of hiccups that have lasted longer than this press conference.”

Hostin, drawing on her high-stress background as a courtroom prosecutor, called the role "the easiest job in Washington, D.C." She said it only requires taking a few questions, giving nonsensical answers, insulting the media and leaving.

She called the debut "very uncomfortable to watch" and suggested she could have personally trained Zacharia to handle it better.

Hostin added that the performance gave her "secondhand embarrassment" and concluded that Zacharia "went wrong" by letting her nerves completely take over.

“I can relate to getting nervous and having stress. I talk on live TV. I know when the brain stops working with the mouth, I think we just lose our point,” panelist Sara Haines admitted. “I do understand that, but I have — it was only 14 minutes long. I have spent longer telling my kids we’re leaving the house than that briefing."

The women on The View weren’t the most brutal critics of her debut.

Former Biden press secretary Jen Psaki posted succinctly on X that the briefing was essentially "an SNL skit… except it wasn't."

CNN star Kaitlan Collins described the brief appearance and long script reading as "bizarre" and "unusual."

Media coach Lauren Hallberg noted that Zacharia spoke too slowly, lacked eye contact and appeared visibly nervous. Other strategists mentioned she relied far too heavily on her notes and made former press secretary Karoline Leavitt "look like James Madison.”

An unnamed White House official told MSNBC that Zacharia needs to "get much better fast, otherwise she'll break Scaramucci's record," referring to former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci's infamous 11-day tenure.

Multiple White House officials told reporters that her debut left staff completely "without confidence" in her abilities and that there was "literally zero reason to put her out on her second day, unprepared."