{"id":165301,"date":"2026-10-19T13:23:31","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T21:23:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/10\/19\/hillary-clinton-kamala-harris-also-failed-the-bar-exam-note-gopers-faceplanting-zacharia-defense\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T13:23:31","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T21:23:31","slug":"hillary-clinton-kamala-harris-also-failed-the-bar-exam-note-gopers-faceplanting-zacharia-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/10\/19\/hillary-clinton-kamala-harris-also-failed-the-bar-exam-note-gopers-faceplanting-zacharia-defense\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Hillary Clinton & Kamala Harris Also Failed The Bar Exam!\u2019 Note GOPers Faceplanting Zacharia Defense"},"content":{"rendered":"

Katie Zacharia\u2019s stint as White House Press Secretary ended so quickly Anthony Scaramucci even had to weigh in. <\/p>\n

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\n
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Imagine DiMaggio watching someone hit in 57 games straight, Jason\u2026 https:\/\/t.co\/Piba5LKYiv<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) October 17, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The former pundit\u2019s tenure fell apart almost instantly, after the media asked where she\u2019d passed the bar exam and she answered \u201cChina.\u201d Given that China doesn\u2019t let foreign nationals take their version of the exam, this prompted Judd Legum to do some sleuthing and discover that Zacharia has never been licensed in the United States<\/a>. During the ensuing fire drill, it came out that Zacharia took the California exam and failed<\/a> \u2014 and just kind of went ahead as though she hadn\u2019t. Her defenders put out the fact that she had passed the MPRE, which\u2026 I mean\u2026<\/p>\n

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Is it possible to fail the MPRE? The questions are like \u201cLawyers should try to embezzle from their clients \u2014 True or False?\u201d<\/p>\n

Actually\u2026 as I say that, I see why Trump world might view passing the test as an accomplishment. https:\/\/t.co\/4F9X2orUOO<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Joe Patrice (@JosephPatrice) October 15, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Ultimately, all these attempts at damage control failed to save her job<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But you have to hand it to social media conservatives for launching a half-baked round of \u201cwhataboutism\u201d to save face. Unfortunately, like all these efforts, it fizzled because they failed to understand the actual issue<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

On \u201cThe Alex Marlow Show,\u201d host and Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow talked about the White House.
Marlow said, \u201cOverall, the thought that failing a bar disqualifies you from holding a public office\u2026this is going to disqualify Kamala Harris, who failed the bar her first time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Marlow wasn\u2019t alone, right-wing social media cherry-picked over every bit of bar exam lore to flag every famous Democrat from Hillary Clinton to FDR as having failed the bar exam. Which is fair enough, except the problem for Zacharia was never \u201cthat she failed the bar exam\u201d \u2014 as we noted last week, the bar exam is a stupid, anachronistic hazing ritual that should be excised from modern professional licensing. The problem, as spelled out succinctly in the Campaign for Accountability\u2019s ethics complaint against Zacharia already filed in California<\/a>, was not having a license and still<\/em> spending her career claiming to be a lawyer, up-to-and-including describing herself on LinkedIn as \u201cgeneral counsel\u201d for a non-profit.<\/p>\n

The comparison to the likes of Hillary and Roosevelt flops for a lot of reasons. Honestly, the fact that those people all went back and passed the exam<\/em> isn\u2019t even the most glaring problem with the comparison. It just completely misses the point because failing the bar exam doesn\u2019t matter here. There\u2019s nothing wrong with failing the bar exam, and there\u2019s nothing wrong with going on to have a career in government or academia or as a right-wing mouthpiece without having a law license. The White House Press Secretary doesn\u2019t need to be a lawyer. Hell, being the DOJ spokesperson wouldn\u2019t even require an active law license! The problem is that she built a professional resume claiming to do work that she never had the license to perform, and \u2014 when called out on it \u2014 the administration dug the hole deeper.<\/p>\n

Trust that if Kamala Harris ever claimed to be the general counsel of a California non-profit without a law license, we\u2019d be the first to join in the criticism.<\/p>\n

Anyway, Zacharia has lost the White House job. If she wants, she can go back to cable news punditry. She just can\u2019t go back to being in-house counsel.<\/p>\n

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\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post \u2018Hillary Clinton & Kamala Harris Also Failed The Bar Exam!\u2019 Note GOPers Faceplanting Zacharia Defense<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Katie Zacharia\u2019s stint as White House Press Secretary ended so quickly Anthony Scaramucci even had to weigh in. <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Imagine DiMaggio watching someone hit in 57 games straight, Jason\u2026 https:\/\/t.co\/Piba5LKYiv<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) October 17, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The former pundit\u2019s tenure fell apart almost instantly, after the media asked where she\u2019d passed the bar exam and she answered \u201cChina.\u201d Given that China doesn\u2019t let foreign nationals take their version of the exam, this prompted Judd Legum to do some sleuthing and discover that Zacharia has never been licensed in the United States<\/a>. During the ensuing fire drill, it came out that Zacharia took the California exam and failed<\/a> \u2014 and just kind of went ahead as though she hadn\u2019t. Her defenders put out the fact that she had passed the MPRE, which\u2026 I mean\u2026<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Is it possible to fail the MPRE? The questions are like \u201cLawyers should try to embezzle from their clients \u2014 True or False?\u201d<\/p>\n

Actually\u2026 as I say that, I see why Trump world might view passing the test as an accomplishment. https:\/\/t.co\/4F9X2orUOO<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Joe Patrice (@JosephPatrice) October 15, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Ultimately, all these attempts at damage control failed to save her job<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But you have to hand it to social media conservatives for launching a half-baked round of \u201cwhataboutism\u201d to save face. Unfortunately, like all these efforts, it fizzled because they failed to understand the actual issue<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

On \u201cThe Alex Marlow Show,\u201d host and Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow talked about the White House.
Marlow said, \u201cOverall, the thought that failing a bar disqualifies you from holding a public office\u2026this is going to disqualify Kamala Harris, who failed the bar her first time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Marlow wasn\u2019t alone, right-wing social media cherry-picked over every bit of bar exam lore to flag every famous Democrat from Hillary Clinton to FDR as having failed the bar exam. Which is fair enough, except the problem for Zacharia was never \u201cthat she failed the bar exam\u201d \u2014 as we noted last week, the bar exam is a stupid, anachronistic hazing ritual that should be excised from modern professional licensing. The problem, as spelled out succinctly in the Campaign for Accountability\u2019s ethics complaint against Zacharia already filed in California<\/a>, was not having a license and still<\/em> spending her career claiming to be a lawyer, up-to-and-including describing herself on LinkedIn as \u201cgeneral counsel\u201d for a non-profit.<\/p>\n

The comparison to the likes of Hillary and Roosevelt flops for a lot of reasons. Honestly, the fact that those people all went back and passed the exam<\/em> isn\u2019t even the most glaring problem with the comparison. It just completely misses the point because failing the bar exam doesn\u2019t matter here. There\u2019s nothing wrong with failing the bar exam, and there\u2019s nothing wrong with going on to have a career in government or academia or as a right-wing mouthpiece without having a law license. The White House Press Secretary doesn\u2019t need to be a lawyer. Hell, being the DOJ spokesperson wouldn\u2019t even require an active law license! The problem is that she built a professional resume claiming to do work that she never had the license to perform, and \u2014 when called out on it \u2014 the administration dug the hole deeper.<\/p>\n

Trust that if Kamala Harris ever claimed to be the general counsel of a California non-profit without a law license, we\u2019d be the first to join in the criticism.<\/p>\n

Anyway, Zacharia has lost the White House job. If she wants, she can go back to cable news punditry. She just can\u2019t go back to being in-house counsel.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post \u2018Hillary Clinton & Kamala Harris Also Failed The Bar Exam!\u2019 Note GOPers Faceplanting Zacharia Defense<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Katie Zacharia\u2019s stint as White House Press Secretary ended so quickly Anthony Scaramucci even had to weigh in. Imagine DiMaggio watching someone hit in 57 games straight, Jason\u2026 https:\/\/t.co\/Piba5LKYiv \u2014 Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) October 17, 2026 The former pundit\u2019s tenure fell apart almost instantly, after the media asked where she\u2019d passed the bar exam and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":165253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-165301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}