Recently, former White House press secretary Katie Zacharia was asked where she passed the bar exam and replied, “When I moved to China.”
Three days later, she was fired from her position. Online, she earned the nickname DEI hire.
I understand the joke. The Trump administration spent nearly two years tearing down diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in the name of merit, then handed one of the government’s most visible jobs to someone who could not get through a 15-minute briefing. But the punchline only works if you accept that DEI means unqualified. That is the lie used against Black, brown, LGBTQ, and disabled professionals, and we should stop repeating it.
She was hired for loyalty
Zacharia was named press secretary on Oct. 9 to replace Karoline Leavitt. She later said she misheard the bar question, then admitted two days later that she never passed the exam. Her five days are the shortest tenure of any press secretary on record.
No diversity program put her there. On Real America’s Voice, she told conservative host Jack Posobiec how she caught the president’s eye.
“I tracked every news hit to be in accordance with what policies he was pushing forward,” she said. “Because ...