r/politics • u/cnbc_official CNBC • 12h ago
No Paywall Trump says new White House press secretary Katie Zacharia should 'reconsider' job
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/16/trump-katie-zacharia-white-house.html?__source=reddit%7Cmain3.0k
u/gfh110 Pennsylvania 12h ago
The guy who hired her must be a real moron.
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u/runawaydoctorate 12h ago
Guy who hired her has no idea who hired her and thinks she was a bad idea.
Mark my words. This is how he rolls.
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u/livinginfutureworld 11h ago
"Staffers told me she was good and when I saw her I thought she was good. I can usually tell these things just be a glance".
That's too eloquent for Trump but you get the idea someone else told him about her (he takes no responsibility for anything bad), she had some uh "overexaggerated" qualifications, was a member of the magasphere, and he liked her looks.
Period that's probably the extent of the"interview"/"qualification review" that was conducted.
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u/kieranjackwilson 11h ago
Sources claim that they show him photos of potential hires and he selects them solely based on if they look like the job. He calls it, “central casting.”
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u/AdorianTsepeshu 12h ago
She was literally hired because of insider betting. Money was made on that appointment.
Any future Democratic Congress/Administration absolutely needs to crack down on nationalized gambling. It's a recipe for corruption.
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u/picturepath 12h ago
Yup, gambling and crypto are elements of corruption. Right wing politics from the 90’s would have had the balls to say no to these but now they just suck their balls.
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u/SPEEDFREAKJJ 11h ago
The ads for all the gambling apps and such is what really pisses me off. Kids seeing these with their sports hero or whatever...so scummy and should definitely be illegal. Having the gambling is one thing, but the ads everywhere making it look like a normal part of life really need to stop.
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u/oh-shazbot 11h ago
specifically prediction markets, which literally only exist for insider trading.
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u/NSRedditShitposter America 12h ago
Sacked after six months, looks like you have fucked up. Sacked after five days, looks like the president’s fucked up.
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u/welmoe California 11h ago
Why not both?
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u/theMistersofCirce Vermont 10h ago
I mean she definitely fucked up at the very softball version of her job from minute 1, but also, as a hiring manager I gotta say that if I hire someone and they fail catastrophically and immediately, that's a bad hire and it's on me.
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u/kev11n Illinois 12h ago
"oh, pardon? you're a lawyer? ok! great perfect. anyway, your hair reminds me of my daughter"
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u/tresben 12h ago
Exactly. This isn’t a great look (on top of everything he’s doing) before the midterms. Literally making a pick and then saying “I fucked up, wrong choice” two seconds later.
I wonder if we’re gonna find out what back room deal or corruption led to her being hired in the first place. Cuz it seems like all these positions are just given to the highest bidder or who can do the most for trump or his family/cronies.
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u/-wnr- 12h ago
I wonder if we’re gonna find out what back room deal
Knowing this administration, I'm almost certain the process was "just pick the skinny blonde".
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u/Leezeebub 12h ago
Id guess its only as deep as her being blonde and calling herself a lawyer. Her fuck up was admitting that she didnt pass the bar.
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u/Careful-Rent5779 12h ago
Guy who hired her was thinking with his penis, if he gave any thought to it at all.
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u/dontknowshiitake 12h ago
Guy who hired her was too frustrated with the brain thoughts required to make a decision, so he just pointed at one of the pictures the team laid on his desk and said “that one”.
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u/kneeco28 Canada 12h ago
A Scaramucci is 11 days, for those wondering.
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u/c08306834 12h ago
Pretty soon we will have a Zacharia, we will just have to wait and see how many days that is.
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u/Ok-Arrival6532 12h ago
I still prefer a Metric Mooch, which is 10 days. I hate was use the imperial Scaramucci with 11 days.
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u/Hyro0o0 California 12h ago
I wonder if she'll displace him as the new unit of measurement.
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u/mr_evilweed 12h ago
She's just unfortunately not cut out for the job. This administration needs a speaker who can lie effortlessly and while it certainly seems like she has the passion for lying that the job requires, she doesn't have the credentials or past performance at lying to be succesful in the role.
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u/mediocre_remnants North Carolina 12h ago edited 12h ago
She was torpedoed on purpose. Past press secretaries had the job for a week or more before their first press conference. Spicer said he spent weeks preparing for his first one. There was zero reason to send her out there on literally her first day on the job with no preparation whatsoever, for less than 15 minutes.
I'm guessing Susie Wiles was behind that, because Trump hired Zacharia without even talking to Wiles about it - and it's literally her job to manage White House hires. So she got pissed and threw Zacharia to the wolves on her first day. Except it was all complete softball shit from 3 pro-Trump news outlets. And it was Trump himself who asked her the question that she straight up lied about (where she took the bar).
It's entirely possible she would have been more competent if she had more time to prepare. But she was out there in front of the cameras like 3 days after being offered the job and on her first day on the job.
Leavitt took the job on Nov 15, 2024 and her first press conference was on Jan 28, 2025. So she had about 10 weeks on the job before getting in front of cameras. And she previously had experience with the office (as assistant press secretary) and having other spokesperson/communication jobs.
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u/GruntledEx 11h ago
Spicer spent weeks preparing for his first one and then it turned in to a weeks-long dumpster fire argument about inauguration crowd size. Fantastic preparation.
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u/Tricky-Engineering59 9h ago
Honestly I’m not defending him or anything but I feel like him being the first post-truth press secretary should have him get graded on a curve compared to those that followed. Was a pioneer in the kind of shameful shamelessness being the mouthpiece for that idiot entails.
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u/theMistersofCirce Vermont 10h ago
At least it gave us the gift of Melissa McCarthy running over reporters on her motorized podium.
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u/ScotTheDuck Nevada 12h ago
She didn’t even make it to a single Mooch.
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u/DocShocker 12h ago
Will a half-mooch be called a "Zacharia" ?
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u/flyingbookman 12h ago
No, it will be called a Zachamucci.
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u/Severe_Rise8694 12h ago edited 11h ago
Zachamooch, zachamooch, will you do the Fandango?
Edit: and she did do the Fandango! Half a mooch she lasted. A full zachamooch before fandangoing into the sunset.
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u/Aaroon42 11h ago
Me: Don’t reply with that, it’s stupid.
Also me: I bet someone else has already replied with it.
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u/V_T_H 12h ago
What’s hilariously sad is that Mooch himself said she wouldn’t last a full Mooch
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u/bugspotter 12h ago
Scaramucci.
Has he changed his mind? Yesterday he tweeted that she would make it.
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u/jayfeather31 Washington 12h ago
Well, that was quick.
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u/Teripid 12h ago
But seriously, how many mooches are we at for tenure currently?
There's got to be someone at the Chinese firm that has details on what her daily responsibilities were too, right? I feel like Trump (or someone) mayyybeeee looked at a binder photo from 10 years ago.
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u/dyslexicsuntied North Carolina 12h ago
NYT is reporting she is officially fired. There we have it, less than half a mooch, the Zachamooch is 5 days.
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u/Bangkok_Dangeresque 12h ago
Not official - they're citing multiple sources, but still not comment from either the White House or Zachariah herself.
Not saying it isn't a done deal, just that there's a difference between a story being broken and an official personal announcement from the White House.
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u/theMistersofCirce Vermont 10h ago
I'm just imagining the optics if she somehow weren't fired, after the whole country has accepted it as the inevitable punchline to how terrible she was at the 4 days of her job.
Like if millions of people were joking about of course I got fired and I still had to show up to work on Monday, I think I'd die.
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u/Iwantasnickers 12h ago
I’m legitimately shocked because this level of competency (none) seems to be what they love, so what’s the problem?
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u/Floreat_democratia 12h ago
Simply put, the job requirement is “must be able to fool the rubes by using your charm and good looks in a firm and aggressive manner resembling an angry but loving mother who caught you smoking out back with your friend Jimmy while skipping school.” MAGA minions want to feel scolded but in a sexy way.
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u/Careful_Trifle 12h ago
She got caught too quick. Above all, they need someone who can spin plausible deniability to force the left to have to argue nuance to undecided voters whose defunded school systems failed them.
That's the game plan. If you come out the gate and the press immediately clocks you on an easily verified falsehood, there's not much hope you'll be able to run spin against those same people.
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u/donkeyrocket 10h ago
I think it was more that she genuinely was terrible at it. The lack of qualifications isn't the problem. They need a fast talking, quick witted liar and she appeared to have never had public speaking experience in her life. She would have been a liability.
This administration is held together by tape and lies as have other press secretaries. If you can't yell and insult past those lies then you're going to be shown the door.
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u/BigDaddySteve999 12h ago
Despite (or maybe directly due to) being absolute garbage people, what conservatives want most is to be accepted as normal. In Trump, it's freakishly pathological, but they all have it. That's why calling them "weird" works so well.
So they build their echo chambers (at all levels of social organization, not just the media), but sometimes someone is just so dumb or obviously weird that they can't normalize it, so they have to sacrifice them.
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u/gascyl 12h ago
???
why would he say this. He's <30 days from the most important election of his life and he's trash talking his own press secretary.
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u/ChoicePermission8523 11h ago
Because she became the center of attention with bad press.
If you steal the spotlight from dear leader, you are worth less than dirt.
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u/fxkatt 12h ago
It's as if Trump puts on a different character each day, and proceeds to go out and play the role. Today he's a mob boss.
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u/Caesars_Comet 12h ago
Why is it the most important election of his life?
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u/bryan49 12h ago
Yeah I'd say 2024 was because of all the legal trouble he escaped
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u/dbbk United Kingdom 11h ago
For real he was mega fucked on those federal indictments. Now they have gone poof in the wind, and for his accomplices too (illogically).
The only thing I hold out hope for now is that an impeachment trial happens so we can find out why he was hoarding nuclear secrets.
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u/bbjenn Kentucky 12h ago
Some fucking loser on CNN is insistent that she was thrown
under the bus by not being given enough time to prepare.
She’s a grown ass woman. If she wasn’t prepared, she should have spoken up.
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u/rackfu 11h ago
I think it's both
Yes, she's an adult and is responsible for her actions, but she was also handpicked and offered a job that she was wildly unqualified for, and the administration (Trump specifically) saying she is to blame is laughable.
This administration is a joke, and it's unbelievably depressing that they still have any support.
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u/ElecTRAN 11h ago
Meanwhile I have to go through 10 rounds of interviews, take a multi-hour personality test, present a business case, pass a background check, and piss in a cup for a $50K job opportunity…
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u/Depeche_Mood82 Nevada 12h ago
“Who hired this person?” Dumbass Donald
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u/Poverty_Shoes 12h ago
“I was surprised he was appointed” - Trump on Jerome Powell, who Trump appointed himself.
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u/R67H 12h ago
the guy famous for firing people won't simply fire her?
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u/BasicPerson23 12h ago
He is only famous for pretending to fire people. It was all scripted of course. He can’t do it for real.
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u/eeyore134 12h ago
Half of a Scaramucci. Maybe Trump should reconsider his job since he sucks so bad at hiring people. Turns out that being known as the guy who fires people all the time reflect more poorly on him than the people he fires.
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u/Fine_Equal4647 12h ago
They gonna run out of blondes at some point
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u/VanillaLifestyle 12h ago
None of these people have actually been blonde. Cosplay aryan master race.
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u/Dracoson 12h ago
While she should have said no when the job was offered, it shouldn't have been offered in the first place. It is the job of the administration to do due diligence when selecting it's personnel. She is a reflection of the standards of this administration, which values loyalty over competence.
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u/mostdope28 12h ago
I would bet my life savings people to trump she isn’t qualified but all trump saw was an attractive blonde and gave her the job. lol
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u/PissLikeaRacehorse America 12h ago
Poor SNL. They didn't even get to have a skit on her since she started and was fired before Saturday.
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u/ShakeyLegsMcGee 12h ago
They can run with the skit they had prepared, and just end it with Trump pulling a lever that drops her through the floor and a comical Boing sound effect.
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u/ToinouAngel Europe 12h ago edited 12h ago
Not even a full Scaramucci? I'll be damned, I never though they'd break that record.
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u/cnbc_official CNBC 12h ago
President Donald Trump on Friday opened the door for new White House press secretary Katie Zacharia to step down just days after getting the job.
Trump said he had just told Zacharia, “If I were you, I’d reconsider.”
Zacharia has faced criticism since Monday when she led a shaky first press briefing. She also has faced scrutiny about her legal background.
More details: https://cnb.cx/4i0OrFN
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u/CapnTugg 12h ago
Are there frantic rewrites going on at SNL as we speak or did they already have this covered?
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u/ulfniu 12h ago
Her reach seems to far exceed her grasp, and I'll enjoy watching her career implode just like anyone else associated with this reality television administration
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u/fhilcollins666 11h ago
I mean, they clearly can just pop out a new maga barbie clone, it's not that hard.
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u/Stunning_Mast2001 7h ago
Let’s not forget that Karoline leavitt quit because trump left her to die on Air Force one
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u/seb21051 12h ago edited 11h ago
His Chief of Staff didn't want her, but he overrode her objections.And now he has to TACO.
And it gets better. He now wants to fire the Chief of Staff, who is the only Adult In The Room.
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u/TrooWizard 12h ago
Wow a new record! What is the conversion of Zacharias to Scaramuccis?
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u/Theferael_me Europe 12h ago
lol, thrown under a bus after a single performance. She stank, obviously, but expecting loyalty from Trump is stupid.
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u/reject_fascism New Jersey 12h ago
But I was told he only hires the best? Did he lie?
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u/jimmyF1TZ 10h ago
As awful as Karoline Leavitt was, she really was perfect for Trump's Administrations press secretary. That overconfident and demeaning tone that always supports the Trump administrations policies and decisions was exactly what they wanted.
Horrible person for a horrible administration... but perfect for them.
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u/RodimusPrime_X 12h ago edited 5h ago
She lasted 0.636 Scaramuccis.
Edit: apparently only 0.45 Scaramuccis
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u/SunbornThunderstorm 12h ago
Scaramucci is finally free. A Zacharia is even shorter.
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u/Sabre712 12h ago
Holy fuck we might have a new unit of measurement. The Scaramucci probably isn't going to cut it anymore.
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u/tresben 12h ago
I think we’re gonna see the knives come out more and more the last two years of trumps term in terms of people in the administration backstabbing and turning on each other. Everyone knows the party is coming to an end so they want to get theirs before then. Likely people who wanted this job or wanted someone else for it for their own personal reasons have been in trumps ear to fire her.
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u/questionname Massachusetts 12h ago
breaking the scaramucci record, there will soon be the zacharia unit of measure for time
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u/toedwy0716 12h ago
A head of lettuce would last longer.
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u/rachface336 12h ago
I have shredded chicken in the fridge I haven't used yet and bought before she was announced...it isn't expired yet. Fucking wild.
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u/wookiewin 12h ago
Another bottle blonde is being birthed from the Epstein sex dungeon underneath Maralago as we speak
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u/Interesting_Ask7994 12h ago edited 12h ago
you hired her 5 days ago……
If we can’t trust him to do basic due diligence on an employee why do we expect him to win a war
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u/NVity_____ 12h ago
I’ve been saying that he should have just hired Scott Jennings. I cannot stand listening to him, but he would be a good choice, as far as perfectly being able to lie repeatedly and have no shame
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u/Crabmonster70 12h ago
'Beautiful isn't she? Loyal, fantastic, believe me...'
two minutes later (SpongeBob guy voice)
'She's a fraud, total lightweight, ugly, not for TV. Not for Anything.'
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u/brookeharmsen 12h ago
She was literally the only individual who was too stupid to know that what she has told to say is a lie. Naturally, he chose her.
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u/Current_Volume3750 12h ago
So we need to ditch the "Scaramucci measurement" now and come up with a new one? I'm tired boss.
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u/BoysenberryDry999 11h ago
We should encourage the President to reconsider his job, too.
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u/alittlelessconvo 12h ago edited 11h ago
Speed-running to termination as Trump’s WH press secretary #WomenInMaleFields
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u/ProudPainting6850 11h ago
He fuckin hired a 41 year old lying ass lawyer's assistant. Wild that she could lie about being a lawyer on TV and was dumb enough to say she took the bar while in China 🤣. She could BARELY READ 🤣
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u/00SlaughtereR00 7h ago
She should be fired already. At least hire qualifications and not just pretty faces.
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u/Financial_Dog_8023 7h ago
Should I put in an application for the position? I just only know memes and have 10 years of PC gaming experience, considering they seem to hire just about anyone these days.
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u/Rusalka-rusalka 12h ago
Ouch, I kinda feel bad for her. But, it is bad when the awfulness of Caroline Leavitt outshines you in memory. At least Caroline was prepared and wasn't an embarrassing mess on camera.
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