In part two of our interview with White House Visitors Office Director Ellie Schafer, she tells us about learning the history of the White House, meeting guests like Captain Richard Phillips, who came for a tour and visit with the president after being freed from Somali pirates.



Ellie Schafer at the White House from whcinsider on Vimeo.

Ellie told us she has to “pinch herself” to remember she is really at the White House;  it’s been quite a trip for a woman who started out with President Obama in 2007, working on his advance.

Even a bad day is “still a pretty good day at the White House,” Ellie said.  And that’s easy to see — her office contains photos of her with First Lady Michelle Obama, with the President, and Nancy Reagan.  President Reagan and Ellie’s grandfather were racheros together: that’s some history!  Ellie brings a pretty impressive sports history to the Visitors office.  She played Mushball (it’s a Chicago thing), and her softball team won the league championship – they went all the way to the Gay Softball World Series!

Check out more photos here.

gtruong White House History Barack Obama, Ellie Schafer, White House

Release Party for the Beatles Rock Band

The Obama campaign team famously hung together in Chicago and reportedly spent what little “down time” there was available playing Rock Band.

Tuesday night looked like a campaign reunion with Katie McCormick Lelyveld on drums, Jon Favreau on bass, Jenny Cizner and Adam Frankel on vocals, and Katie Johnson on guitar at the Entertainment Software Association’s release party for the Beatles Rock Band video game.

At Gibson Guitar’s showroom in downtown D.C., politicos joined media mavens living the dream on the video game stage. The floor rocked when Viacom’s DeDe Lea (who revealed she was born 9 months after the Beatles first appeared on the Ed Sullivan show) and Senator Jim Webb’s Kim Hunter were joined by White House Visitors Office Director Ellie Schafer, Craig Hagen, Director of Governmentt Affairs, Electronic Arts and Rich Taylor from ESA. (And yes, he really did reenact Kanye West’s MTV awards show contretemps to the roar of the crowd.)

Also stepping up to the microphone: Representatives Jesse Jackson, Jr., and Joe Crowley, who won rave reviews for their performance of Beatles favorites.

Rock Lighter ruled and there was no mention of health care.

Check out the rest of the photos here!

thaddad Event Coverage, Washington Events Adam Frankel, Craig Hagen, DeDe Lea, Ellie Schafer, Jenny Cizner, Jesse Jackson Jr, Jon Favreau, Katie Johnson, Katie McCormick Lelyveld, Kim Hunter, Rich Taylor, Rock Band

The White House has long been known as “the People’s House” and President Barack Obama promised to make it an open, friendly and welcoming place. Over the last week, the hardest working staff at the White House hasn’t been the health care team … it’s been the Visitors Office. With only five staff members, they have ushered roughly 6,000 people a day through the White House gates with extended tour hours: 12-hour days instead of six. Every congressional office request was honored.

White House Correspondents Insider co-founder Tammy Haddad spoke with White House Visitors Office Director Ellie Schafer and her team for the inside scoop on what goes on behind the scenes at the only building in the world which is simultaneously the home of a head of state, the executive office of a head of state, and a museum open to the public.

The White House Visitors Office from whcinsider on Vimeo.

Schafer is testing out guided White House tours — which were dropped after 9/11. For the past eight years, visitors have walked through on their own, with Secret Service officers looking on. The Obama WH visitors team is getting kudos from White House veterans for allowing visitors into the always popular china room for the first time.

lrozett White House Staff Barack Obama, Ellie Schafer, Tammay Haddad