Katie Zacharia says she'd return as Trump's press secretary and was blindsided by Hannity's 'hostility,' after being fired five days into the role

Katie Zacharia, 41, the Californian who lasted just five days as Trump's White House press secretary before being fired on 16 October, has said she would accept the role again if Trump asked — and remains baffled by the hostile turn her interview with Sean Hannity took, telling host Rob Finnerty she had expected a friendly chat, not an inquisition. Hannity had publicly defended her just two days before the interview, calling out those who mocked her credentials, before grilling her on air over the same bar exam she failed. She told Finnerty that 'he saved this country, not once but twice.'

Zacharia said she 'would likely' still be in the job had she not appeared on Hannity and 'Fox & Friends' before her firing.

Kayleigh McEnany, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Ari Fleischer and Sean Spicer all contacted her with sympathy after her departure, she claimed.

Zacharia blamed her exit on outsider-hostile Washington politics: 'The media and all of Washington made it very difficult for me.'