China has invited the now-ousted White House press secretary Katie Zacharia to visit the country again after she claimed that the Asian superpower lacked “proper toilets”.
The controversy began last week before Ms Zacharia was sacked by US president Donald Trump less than a week into her job.
Ms Zacharia was speaking in an interview with podcaster Jack Posobiec on Thursday when she took a jab at a country whose president had recently received a grand red-carpet welcome from Mr Trump.
Talking about the perception around 2016 that “the gold days, the glory days of the US were over and China was on the horizon”, she said: “I remember this very distinctly having just come from China, thinking, how is China the next country on the horizon? They don’t even have proper toilets.”
On Friday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning responded to the comments, saying: “[We] welcome her to visit China more often when she has the opportunity.”
Ms Zacharia, a former spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, had started her new job as press secretary less than a week ago, after Karoline Leavitt left the administration earlier this year.
The White House said she was “uniquely qualified and whip-smart”. Before losing her job, she had been expected to travel to China with Mr Trump next month for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen.
But those comments about Chinese toilets were by no means the biggest controversy of Ms Zacharia’s brief tenure as press secretary, which was dogged by scrutiny over her credentials as a lawyer. Earlier on Tuesday, she said that she passed the bar exam “when I moved to China” with her husband.
According to her LinkedIn, she worked at Zhong Lun Law Firm – one of the country’s biggest – from 2011 to 2013. But while Chinese law firms can hire foreign nationals, they cannot be licensed as lawyers in the country.
The Campaign for Accountability has filed a complaint with the State Bar of California demanding an investigation into her claims of being a advocate.
Ms Zacharia’s tenure will be remembered for a disastrous first press conference that lasted only 14 minutes and saw her take just three questions from reporters.
During her briefing on Tuesday, she announced that US ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle had been asked to resign. But she also mixed up her husband and President Trump, a gaffe that left even the most ardent MAGA Republicans wincing.
The final nail in Ms Zacharia’s press secretary coffin came during appearances on Fox News, where she told Trump’s pal Sean Hannity that the administration did not adequately prepare her, and then raised questions about the vetting process on Friday’s Fox & Friends.
Mr Trump told reporters on Friday afternoon that he had suggested Zacharia step aside. “I said to her honestly, if I were you, I'd reconsider [her position],” he said.
She sets a new record for the shortest time served in the role by a White House press secretary or communications director, more than halving the 11-day record set during Mr Trump’s first term. In 2017, Mr Trump had fired Anthony Scaramucci after he gave an expletive-filled interview to a New Yorker reporter in which he badmouthed other senior White House aides.
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