White House reporters react to Katie Zacharia's 'brutal' exit as Trump's press secretary

White House reporters are stunned by the brief tenure of President Donald Trump's press secretary Katie Zacharia after just five days on the job.

"Brutal," one White House correspondent reacted to Fox News Digital .

Zacharia, who first took to the podium on Tuesday following the August departure of her predecessor Karoline Leavitt, did not receive the warmest reception among critics who pointed to her nervous demeanor and how she only called on three reporters during her debut.

"I knew she was out two minutes into her prepared remarks on Tuesday," a second White House reporter told Fox News Digital.

"It was just too drastically different from Karoline.

We were all shocked after." TRUMP'S NEW PRESS SECRETARY OUT OF THE JOB JUST DAYS AFTER ROCKY DEBUT "Karoline was beautiful and hardcore MAGA ...

AND dignified and professional and substantive.

She set a new standard for press secretaries.

You can't just be hot and good on TV," the reporter added.

A third White House correspondent said they were surprised Trump ever offered her the job in the first place, saying "usually he’s spot on about who has 'it' and who doesn’t." "There is no excuse for Katie’s first briefing performance," the reporter said.

"In that role, you have to be the best communicator because your job is speaking to the American people on the president’s behalf.

No one expected her to have all the answers, or even most of them.

But I expected basic communication skills that were simply not there." "She probably could have been better than Karine Jean-Pierre if she had more time to prepare.

But it was a brutal start," a fourth White House reporter told Fox News Digital.