White House Social Secretary Desirée Rogers, who was criticized from one end of Pennsylvania Ave. to the other after a highly embarrassing gate-crashing of the administration’s first State Dinner, has left her job to return to the private sector.
Critics of Ms. Rogers, who is a longtime friend of the Obama’s, say she never fully understood that her role was to manage White House events from behind the scenes, not attend and enjoy them as if she were a guest. But on the night of Mr. and Mrs. Obama’s first official White House State Dinner, Michaele and Tareq Salahi were able to slip past security and directly into the receiving line of the President, Vice-President, and visiting Prime Minister of India, while Ms. Rogers enjoyed cocktails inside the party instead of managing the guest list at the security gate.
President Obama was said to have been furious toward the Secret Service and Ms. Rogers for the breach of security, and that the White House had muzzled Ms. Rogers and kept her totally out of the public eye in recent months. Reportedly, Ms. Rogers grew tired of being relegated to the background and it was mutually agreed that it was best she leave the position.The White House immediately announced that Julianna Smoot, who was most recently Chief of Staff for U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, would replace Ms. Rogers.
