What does a White House press secretary do?

The White House press secretary is one of the most important public-facing jobs in any administration.Yet it is one with no job description, no required qualifications, no vetting by Congress.

And as the most recent press secretary found out, you can be fired from the position just as quickly as you were hired.For nearly 100 years, since the rise of a modern press corp, there has been a person designated to speak on behalf of the sitting U.S.president.

But the press secretary also answers to the public, says former Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby.He served during both the Obama and Biden administrations."You are expected to be the president's voice and sometimes the president's face on issues on a daily basis, which means you have to have access to the president," Kirby told NPR's Ayesha Roscoe on Weekend Edition Sunday.

"You have to know what the president's thinking about, whatever the policy issue is, but you also are accountable to the American people."Kirby said that a press secretary's job is to "be honest" and tell Americans as much and as quickly as possible while also taking tough questions from the press.This is where Katie Zacharia, who was fired last week, ran into trouble.Just two days into the job she faced scrutiny over how she handled questions from reporters during her first briefing.

Zacharia was visibly nervous, she took only a handful of questions and she largely stuck to a script of talking points.But it was describing herself as a lawyer that earned her the extra scrutiny.

It was eventually revealed that Zacharia had failed the California bar exam, which meant that she was not an attorney.Five days after starting the job, she was out.Press secretaries are not required to be attorneys but they do have to be able to hold their own with reporters.

Sean Spicer – one of several White House press secretaries during Trump's first administration – had a combative relationship with the press.Spicer regularly sparred with members of the me...