Trump says he told Katie Zacharia she should ‘reconsider’ role as White House press secretary – live

Donald Trump was taking questions from reporters outside the White House when he made those comments about Katie Zacharia. A reporter asked the president if he have liked to have known that Zacharia didn’t pass the bar. Trump replied: Katie has been treated very badly by the media. Very, very badly. Very unfair. And I just spoke to her about it. I said – Katie, is this for you?

And she’s a nice person … But I said, is this for you, Katie, because honestly you don’t need this, you don’t have to be treated [this way]. He said that Fox News’s Sean Hannity was “a little bit tough” on her and said sh had been treated “pretty nastily”. Asked if he was going to keep her in the role, Trump said: “I’m going to let her make that decision.”

He added: “Katie is off to a start that, the news has been so nasty to her … I told her, ‘Honestly, if I were you, I would reconsider’ … Maybe it’s not for her.” Asked how much time he was going to give her and whether he wanted her to stick around ultimately,

And with impeccable timing from my video colleagues, here’s a clip from Katie Zacharia’s interview last night with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, when she admitted that she did not pass the bar exam, after facing scrutiny about her legal career before becoming the top spokesperson for Trump.

Zacharia had previously said she practiced law before entering politics, and Trump had described her as an attorney. Zacharia earned a law degree from Pepperdine University in 2011, according to the school. Nearly all licensed US lawyers first obtain a law degree, but law school graduates cannot legally practice law in the US without being admitted to a state bar. In China (where Zacharia lived after graduating from Pepperdine), the law requires practicing lawyers to be Chinese nationals. Foreign staff can advise and consult on legal matters but not practice law.

We’re getting some lines through now on the news wires that Donald Trump has suggested that the role of White House press secretary is “not for” the embattled Katie Zacharia, who’s been on the defense since her shaky debut before reporters this week and a distracting semantics battle over whether or not she is a lawyer. Trump said he “will talk to her” after already telling her “she should reconsider [the] role”.

Top Pentagon officials have expressed their intention to hold off on releasing a report about a strike on an Iranian school that killed up to 168 people – most of them children – until after the US midterms, Bloomberg (paywall) reports today. Defense secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly “communicated these plans”, according to Bloomberg’s sources.

A UN fact-finding mission has determined there are reasonable grounds to believe the US was behind the strike on the school in Minab on 28 February, as well as a strike on a sports facility in Lamerd on the same date, and that these constituted war ⁠crimes.

The first cited strike involved a US Tomahawk missile that collapsed the roof of the Shajareh Tayyebeh primary school in Minab, southern Iran, during morning classes on the first day of the US-Israeli war on Iran, killing 120 children aged seven to 12, as well as staff and parents. The second cited strike, on the same date, targeted a “clearly identifiable sports complex and residential area”

Democrats in key Senate battlegrounds have outpaced Republican fundraising, according to the most recent Federal Electoral Commission (FEC) quarterly filings.

While outside groups and Super Pacs have spent more advertising money to boost Republicans in many of these closely watched competitions, Democrats have had a stronger showing in the number of dollars their campaigns have received directly – leaving many with a strong cash-on-hand advantages going into the final stretch of the midterm elections.

According to the latest filings, James Talarico – the Democratic nominee in Texas who has surged in the polls – raised more than $60m in the last quarter (which ended on 30 September). Meanwhile, his Republican opponent, attorney general Ken Paxton, brought in just over $10m. A similar disparity applies in the competitive races we’re watching this cycle.

For example, in Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed raised more than $30m, compared with Mike Rogers’ $10m. Meanwhile in Maine, Troy Jackso

In Maine, Troy Jackson, the Democratic nominee for US Senate, and Susan Collins, the five-term Republican incumbent traded barbs on Thursday in their final debate ahead of the November midterms. This was the fourth showdown between the pair.

Collins has tried to cast Jackson as an inexperienced state lawmaker, and attempted to yolk him to the former nominee, Graham Platner, who dropped out of the race earlier this year following allegations of rape and sexual assault (which he still denies). Meanwhile, Jackson accused his opponent of corruption, and castigated her for her “moderate” persona in Congress.

On Thursday, Collins defended her independent record, noting that she frequently bucks the president and her own party. She has notably voted against the confirmation of defense secretary Pete Hegseth. Jackson, however, said that Republicans – including Collins – have largely failed to hold Donald Trump accountable. At one point, when a protester (who was part of the live audience) inte

Attorneys and experts are raising the alarm that immigrants at Camp East Montana, the sprawling desert detention camp on the Fort Bliss military base in west Texas, face a risk of serious injury or death because of ongoing, extreme health and safety hazards there, according to a fresh court filing, the Guardian can reveal.

The allegedly dangerous conditions persist at the tent jail, the largest immigration detention facility in the US, despite regular reports from inside and outside the federal government that it has violated dozens of official standards since it opened last year.

One correctional expert, who has run two state prison systems, Dean Williams, said in testimony as part of the new filing that conditions at Camp East Montana “shock the conscience” and were “far beyond those of the most secure prisons I have overseen”, even though it is a civil, not a criminal, detention facility and the vast majority of the men and women held there have no criminal records. “Poor healthcare

Donald Trump’s new White House press secretary says it is “unknown” how much she will engage with the press, amid mounting questions over her legal credentials after admitting she did not pass the bar exam. In a brief interview with the Guardian, Katie Zacharia detailed the whirlwind sprint to replace her predecessor Karoline Leavitt as the US president’s chief spokesperson.

Just six days after receiving a call from the White House, Zacharia stepped behind the podium for her first briefing as press secretary, in a debut that has been widely panned.

Asked by the Guardian what reasons the White House gave for offering her the position, Zacharia – who previously served as an adviser to Trump Media Group, which owns the president’s Truth Social platform, and had a brief stint as a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security – declined to comment.

Now the White House press secretary, she also would not clarify on Thursday how often she intended to brief the press. She said that was

Trump’s new press secretary Katie Zacharia has been on the defense since her shaky first appearance in the White House briefing room on Tuesday and questions about her credentials as a lawyer.

In addition to her Fox News appearance this morning, she was also on the network late last night to speak to Sean Hannity and defend her performance in which she only took questions from three outlets and abruptly ended the briefing after 14 minutes. “I really stepped up to the plate to do the press conference, Sean, with very little prep time,” Zacharia said.

“I received briefing materials in the morning of Tuesday, and I went to deliver all of the great results that president Trump is delivering for the American people… And then I took several questions. They’ve said I only took questions from conservative outlets. However, the Daily Mail is not known to be a conservative outlet or friendly to conservative. So I do challenge that narrative.”

Hannity went on to do something rare for a Fox News c

Katie Zacharia, Trump’s new and already under fire press secretary, was asked if she still had the confidence of the president when she appeared on Fox & Friends this morning. Zacharia had a bumpy start to her new role, with her first press briefing being widely derided as awkward and needing quick improvement. Zacharia also faced questions after repeatedly describing herself as a lawyer.

No public record shows she has ever been licensed to practice law in the US states where she resided, and her answer to reporters’ questions earlier this week only deepened scrutiny. On Friday, Fox & Friends co-host Lawrence B Jones asked her: “Katie, do you, and it’s a tough question, do you think you still have the confidence of the president?”

She replied: “I’m standing here and I was able to travel with him through all the midterm rallies and I hope to be able to build the trust and confidence of everyone around me.”

A reminder my colleague Jakub Krupa is covering the latest out of Europe, including the most recent fallout between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump, which began after the US president lifted diesel sanctions on Russia. Zelenskyy got asked by Sky News if he feels he’s being treated as a scapegoat for Trump’s domestic problems ahead of the November midterm elections.

In response, he pauses for 15 seconds, and eventually smiles before saying: “This is my answer.” Follow along with Jakub here:

Donald Trump will begin the day in Washington, before he resumes his midterms campaign blitz and heads to Dalton, Georgia for a rally at 2. 45pm ET. We’ll bring you the latest lines as that gets under way. The president will then travel to Palm Beach, Florida, for a Republican National Committee event which will be closed to the press.

Trump is also spending his Saturday on the trail, when he heads to Highland Heights, Kentucky – which sits on the border of Ohio – for another midterms rally.

Organisers for the No Kings movement are set to hold over 3,000 events across all 50 states and Washington DC this weekend in order to get people to the polls early for the upcoming US midterm elections.

No Kings, a movement led by a coalition of protest groups that began during Donald Trump’s second presidential term, are aiming to make Saturday the largest single day of early voting in US history while also creating a network of volunteers who can defend the democratic process against any possible sabotage.

Hunter Dunn, a member of anti-fascist group 50501 who is a part of the movement, said that the movement’s goal “isn’t just to demonstrate people power. It’s to channel people power into something useful.”

A Trump ally has been fired from his role as a special envoy hours after it was reported that he had engaged in a months-long email fight with the deputy secretary of state.

Paolo Zampolli, an Italian-born former modelling agent and a personal friend of the president, was ousted from his role as the United States special representative for global partnerships on Thursday after a story by Politico showed that he had been clashing with Christopher Landau.

Messages obtained by Politico showed that the pair disagreed on numerous issues, including Zampolli overstepping his remit and Landau blocking him from making certain trips, which Zampolli threatened to complain to Trump about. Throughout the feud, emails exchanged between the two were also sent to “more than a dozen government officials”, including the presidential personnel director Dan Scavino.

Zampolli also accused Landau of leaking information, which the latter denied, replying: “Your threats and accusations are getting more and mo

Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. Donald Trump has accused fellow Republicans of “doing everything possible to make it hard” for Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee in the Texas Senate race.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump lambasted incumbent senator John Cornyn and political strategist Karl Rove, claiming that they were “sadly, and very stupidly” working against Paxton due to personal jealousy towards him, and accused the pair of “hurting Texas and, more importantly, hurting the United States of America!”

He added: “If Ken Paxton loses, it will be because of WEAK and INEFFECTIVE Political Hacks like John Cornyn and Karl Rove, who have ineffectively opposed me for my entire political career.” Despite Texas being seen a Republican safe seat by many in the party, polls show the Democratic nominee James Talarico having a slight lead on Paxton, who has served as the attorney general of Texas since 2015.

A loss for Paxton would be seen as a major blow for Trump and the GOP, an

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