Piers Morgan has criticised former White House press secretary Katie Zacharia during an interview on Piers Morgan Uncensored, telling her to "cut the c***" and saying that she sounded "like a robot".
Zacharia, who holds the record as the shortest-serving White House press secretary in history after stepping down just five days into the role following a 14-minute first briefing, appeared on the show to discuss her departure.
Interview turns confrontational
The British presenter opened the interview by asking Zacharia about the details of her exit, but the 42-year-old repeatedly responded with pro-Trump talking points. Her replies prompted Morgan to push back, telling her "you sound like a robot".
"I'm just not entirely sure you're no longer the press secretary," Morgan said. "You do realise you're not the press secretary?"
Morgan presses on departure
When questioned again about the circumstances of her departure and her conversation with President Donald Trump, Zacharia said "this interview should not be about me, it should be about the fact that we are less than five days away from the midterms".
"Katie, the whole point of the interview was it was about you," Morgan responded. "Let's cut the c*** and have a serious, genuine conversation. You sound like a robot. Has Donald Trump got some program plugged into you to make you come out with all this stuff?"
Morgan continued: "I know Donald very well, right, I know the President very well. I'm sure he won't mind me asking how you're feeling, how it went down, all that stuff. You're not going to be betraying his loyalty - and when it comes to loyalty, he did fire you after five days. That's what happened, he did it very nicely, but he made it clear to the world this wasn't going to last much longer."
Zacharia defends her answers
Zacharia insisted "I do not sound like a robot", adding that she did not like the way Morgan was "couching" the departure, that she would "not continue relitigating it", nor "disclose private conversation" had between her and the President.
"What I am is trying to continue a conversation in a forward trajectory about what President Trump is doing which you are not wanting to engage in, which the media doesn't want to engage in… they didn't allow me to do my job for those five days because they wanted to make it about me," she said.
Morgan's show primarily streams on his YouTube channel and also airs on Channel 5 and 5STAR, as well as Fox Nation in the United States.
