Entertainment
After Decades of Silence, White House Domestic Staff Share Stories in New Book
Krissah Thompson, THE WASHINGTON POST
WASHINGTON (The Washington Post)—Many of the men and women who have worked in the White House residence — serving presidents and their families in their private quarters — are breaking with a long-held tradition of silence: They are dishing about life behind the scenes at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
For her forthcoming book, “The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House,” Kate Andersen Brower managed to elicit stories from domestic staff who witnessed up close the loneliness of President Nixon as he faced impeachment, the weariness of Hillary Clinton as her husband’s sex scandal exploded, and other surprisingly intimate moments involving the first families.
Most of these stories — from Nancy Reagan’s tirade over three broken tchotchkes to the tearful hug Jackie and Bobby Kennedy shared with a favorite doorman in an elevator — are attributed to staffers by name, not wrapped in the cloud of anonymous sourcing that usually cloaks reporting about the inner workings of the White House.
###
