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All eyes - especially Trump's - will be watching Zacharia's performance today published at 13:54 BST Bernd Debusmann Jr at the White House Press Briefing room There's still an hour or so to go until Katie Zacharia's first appearance at the briefing room podium - but the White House is already buzzing with activity. There are already approximately 30 or so people in the briefing room, including many without assigned seats that are standing in the aisles. This has become common during the Trump administration, with briefings often turning into crowded moshpits of reporters standing in any available space.
I've just taken a seat, but it required wading over a sea of camera tripods and equipment. Briefings, however, haver been few and far between in recent months. The last one took place on 15 September, when Attorney General Todd Blanche conducted a rare outdoor session in the Rose Garden patio.
White House staff and journalists will be watching closely to see how Zacharia performs in what is a high-stress, high-stakes job that more often than not includes fielding difficult questions that require interpreting the president's meaning and intent. Above all, however, the job of White House press secretary in the Trump administration is about performing for an audience of one: the president himself. There was intense competition and backroom politicking for the job, and Trump will surely will be watching to see whether or not he made the right choice.
Source: BBC
