Katie Zacharia leaving her White House role less than five days on the job

As the country draws closer to the November midterm elections, which will decide who controls the US Congress, Democrats are seizing on Zacharia's abrupt departure as a sign of failure in the Republican White House."The White House Press Secretary is gone. MAGA extremists continue to fall apart," the top Democrat in the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, posted on X.Zacharia's tumultuous week began on Tuesday, after she appeared visibly nervous during her inaugural White House press briefing that lasted 14 minutes, where she read talking points from a notebook, answered only a few questions, and referred to her husband as the president.During the briefing, a reporter asked Zacharia - who had been called an attorney by Trump and others and who graduated from Pepperdine University's law school - about where she passed the bar exam. To practice law in the US, an attorney must be admitted to a state's bar association by passing a rigorous exam.She replied: "When I was in China." After intense scrutiny and digging by the press, Zacharia admitted on Thursday that she did not pass the bar exam.She did say in a statement that she had practised international transaction law in China with the "appropriate credentials". Questions about her legal credentials became a major talking point throughout the week, with Sean Hannity from conservative-leaning Fox News lobbing particularly pointed questions at her during an interview on Thursday.