As the Secret Service gets thrown under the bus for letting Tareq and Michaele Salahi waltz into last Tuesday’s White House state dinner, two former White House social secretaries wonder why their former office is getting wholly off the hook.
“If there was a screw-up, it would be our problem,” Laurie Firestone, who was President George H.W. Bush’s social secretary, told Yeas & Nays. She expressed surprise the Secret Service was taking the hit for Salahigate.
“If you’ve got somebody you know shouldn’t be there, you make sure they don’t get in and don’t get close to the president and first lady,” added Maria Downs, who served as President Ford’s social secretary.
Newsweek reported earlier this week that a holdover from the George W. Bush administration, Cathy Hargraves, whose job duties included physically — yes, physically — standing at the gate as guests arrived, left her post in June after being stripped of many of her duties by the Obama administration’s social secretary’s office.
Obama Social Secretary Desiree Rogers said nobody from her office was at the gate Tuesday night, which has prompted congressional Republicans to ask Rogers to testify about the security lapse Thursday on Capitol Hill. No word yet from the White House on whether she will.
Downs and Firestone also said it was standard for social secretaries to work the event.
“You work — you definitely work,” Downs told Yeas & Nays. “And you oversee everything and make sure everything goes smoothly.”
Rogers has been getting some flak from bloggers for showing up at the event dressed in a Comme des Garcons gown, instead of sneaking around behind the scenes. In Rogers’ defense, Firestone said she always wore a gown and socialized.
“You are a working guest, and that’s quite different than being at the dinner as a guest, that’s all I’m saying,” she said.
But both former secretaries said they never would have sat down to eat dinner with the guests.
The White House did not respond to a Yeas & Nays inquiry as to whether Rogers was seated at a table for Tuesday’s state dinner, though her name did appear on the official guest list.
