Former White House press secretary Katie Zacharia diverted questions about the 2026 midterm election results on a BBC interview, instead focusing on the contested Alaska Senate race.
On Wednesday, the interview was broadcast on BBC's Newsnight, where presenter Victoria Derbyshire asked Zacharia about President Donald Trump's comments following the election losses that handed control of Congress to Democrats.
Zacharia responded by highlighting the Alaska contest, where Republican incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan faces Democratic challenger Mary Peltola and an independent candidate also named Dan Sullivan, questioning the fairness of the ballot structure.
She repeatedly asked why Vice President JD Vance did not reference the Alaska race in a social media post attributing Republican losses to the Iran war, and suggested the presence of the independent candidate was intended to confuse voters.
The interview also touched on Zacharia's brief five-day tenure as press secretary in October, which ended after a 14-minute briefing, and the ongoing vacancy in the role since Karoline Leavitt stepped down in August.
Zacharia defended the administration's unity, stating there were no divisions between the president and vice president, and dismissed claims of political fallout from the midterms.