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White House press secretary Katie Zacharia grew up in Cambria, California, and attended Coast Union High School, as seen in a 2003 yearbook photo.<\/p>\n
Coast Union High School yearbook and Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Katie Zacharia \u2014 who was fired after serving only five days as White House press secretary \u2014 grew up in California and remembers her hometown of Cambria as \u201ca liberal cesspool\u201d \u2014 boring, not nearly conservative enough for her and suffering from a \u201chuge drug population.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also, no one should raise their kids there.<\/p>\n
That was the characterization she gave to the area she called home throughout most of her childhood, according to an interview on a conservative TV network.<\/p>\n
Zacharia, a former political commentator on Newsmax and Fox News, debuted in the press secretary position on Monday, taking over the role from Karoline Leavitt.<\/p>\n
During her first and only week in the position, she fielded a host of headlines about whether she misrepresented her legal credentials after calling herself a lawyer despite failing the bar exam.<\/p>\n
![\"WASHINGTON,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/81b9ea4a-fad8-49fb-bdee-d579b8e6bf50.jpeg\" "\\"81b9ea4a-fad8-49fb-bdee-d579b8e6bf50\\"")
WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 13: White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia speaks during a news briefing in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House on October 13, 2026 in Washington, DC. Zacharia, a conservative commentator and former communications adviser for Trump Media, took questions from reporters in her first media briefing as the new White House press secretary. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images) Chip Somodevilla Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images <\/p>\n
White House officials also questioned if she was capable of doing the job after she only took three questions from reporters during a 15-minute-long press briefing<\/a> Tuesday, according to CNN reporting<\/a>.<\/p>\n Zacharia was fired on Friday.<\/p>\n The New York Times reported<\/a> that President Donald Trump asked her to \u201creconsider\u201d the job, saying \u201cI don\u2019t think you need this.\u201d<\/p>\n Former White House press secretary attended high school in SLO County<\/p>\n Born as Kate Sharon Black in 1984, according to Britannica<\/a>, she was adopted and raised in Southern California for the first few years of her life.<\/p>\n In a Jan. 9, 2026, episode<\/a> of \u201cThe Anchormen Show\u201d on One America News Network, Zacharia said she moved from Huntington Beach to the tourist hamlet on San Luis Obispo County\u2019s North Coast when she was around 7 or 8 years old. SLO County is on California\u2019s Central Coast.<\/p>\n Cambria is a tiny, liberal town that\u2019s a good vacation destination, she warned viewers, but \u201cdo not raise your kids there.\u201d<\/p>\n She then went on to label the community as a drug haven.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of drugs, meth, pot. I mean, it\u2019s just south of Big Sur, so you\u2019re dealing with this huge drug population,\u201d she said during the interview. \u201cI was one of the few people in my high school that did not participate in the debauchery.\u201d<\/p>\n Zacharia attended Coast Union High School and later went on to graduate from Pepperdine University in Malibu with a bachelor\u2019s degree in political science and a juris doctor degree, according to her LinkedIn page<\/a>.<\/p>\n A 2003 high school yearbook contains several photos of then Kate Black, with one caption describing the long-haired teenager as radiating \u201cthat friendly Coast Union feeling to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n On another page, she was awarded the \u201cmost talkative\u201d yearbook superlative, according to photos shared with The Tribune.<\/p>\n \u201cI still get these messages from middle school, high school friends, \u2018You were the most outspoken conservative, even in middle school,\u2019 in this liberal cesspool,\u201d she said on \u201cThe Anchormen Show.\u201d<\/p>\n She described herself as the conservative \u201cblack sheep\u201d of her family.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd that\u2019s all thanks to the great, late Rush Limbaugh. He raised me as a young kid on the radio.\u201d<\/p>\n The New York Times reported that Zacharia was forced out of her role after five days and that Trump said perhaps she could continue working for him \u201cin some form, but maybe a more pleasant form.\u201d<\/p>\n Later Friday, White House communications director Steve Cheung told The Times that Zacharia will be \u201ctransitioning into a new role that will be announced at a later date.\u201d<\/p>\n The White House did not immediately respond to The Tribune\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n This story was originally published October 16, 2026 at 12:57 PM.<\/p>\n Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n Hannah Poukish<\/a><\/p>\n The Tribune<\/p>\n Hannah Poukish covers San Luis Obispo County as The Tribune\u2019s government reporter. She previously reported and produced stories for The Sacramento Bee, CNN, Spectrum News and The Mercury News in San Jose. She graduated from Stanford University with a master\u2019s degree in journalism.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n White House press secretary Katie Zacharia grew up in Cambria, California, and attended Coast Union High School, as seen in a 2003 yearbook photo. Coast Union High School yearbook <\/p>\n
White House press secretary Katie Zacharia grew up in Cambria, California, and attended Coast Union High School. Kate Black at the time, she was voted \u201cmost talkative\u201d in her 2003 yearbook. Coast Union High School yearbook <\/p>\n
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