Photo by Tim Brown
When Lindsay Reynolds was appointed chief of staff to First Lady Melania Trump, she said she was working to speed up the process to begin White House public tours after the home’s customary closure to the public during the presidential transition period.
Nearly two weeks later, the White House Visitors Office, which handles tour requests and organizes events like the Easter Egg Roll and the National Christmas Tree lighting, still doesn’t have a new leader, and federal officials are voicing concerns about the delay.
Americans can request a White House visit through their congressional representatives. Melinda Bates, who was director of the White House Visitors Office during President Clinton’s two terms, told CNN that a congressman’s wife once visited her to say that “access to these tours is more important to my husband’s re-election than any speech he will ever give.”
Iowa Senator Charles Grassley tweeted on Sunday at “whoever monitors twitter at WH for businessman president Trump,” asking when the tours would resume because “Mrs G wants to know.”
Grassley’s inquiry is in addition to a letter signed by at least two dozen lawmakers that’s making its rounds on Capitol Hill urging that the White House Visitors Office reopen soon, The Washington Post reports. “This time-honored tradition of allowing visitors into the White House was started by Thomas Jefferson in 1805, and previous administrations have been quick to reopen the White House doors to the public, even doing so the day after the Inauguration,” the letter reads. “Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama all appointed a White House Visitors Office Director before being sworn in, and had reopened the White House to the public at this point.”
A spokesman for Representative Gerald Connolly told The Post that Northern Virginians submit about 100 tour requests a week, and at this point, “we’re telling them that we’ll let them know.”
Lauren Doney, communications director for Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin, told CNN that while she waits for information as to when the tours might begin, her office “continues to offer Capitol tours to interested constituents.”
