President Hosted Unscheduled ‘DNC Event’ at White House, Visitor Logs Reveal

(CNSNews.com) – According to White House visitor logs, President Barack Obama hosted a “DNC event” in the White House on Feb. 25, a Democratic National Committee event that was not on the schedule for that day.

The logs list 16 people, all of whom arrived between 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. on the afternoon of Feb. 25 for a “DNC Event” held on the State Floor of the White House, a room where foreign dignitaries are entertained.

The logs did not list in which room on that floor the event was held. However, the State Floor includes the East Room, State Dining Room, and the Blue Room, site of another DNC event.

The logs also confirm that each of the 16 guests were to meet with President Obama, using the acronym “POTUS,” or President of the United States.

The event was not on the official schedule for that day and appears to have been impromptu, with the logs indicating that the guests scheduled the meetings with the president individually, often minutes before they arrived at the White House.

However, each guest listed “DNC Event” as their reason for being there, as well as listing “state floor” as the location and “POTUS” as the person they were there to see, indicating that all 16 persons were attending the event.

In response to CNSNews.com’s inquiries about the event, the White House answered by e-mail, stating, “This was a reception for the DNC members who were in town for the DNC yearly meeting, which kicked off the day before.”

“We’ve often used the DNC Christmas Party (similar to this one) and as an example of events political parties routinely sponsor at the White House,” said the e-mail.

The Feb. 25 meeting is not the only time the DNC has hosted a political event at the White House. In March, the DNC scheduled an event in the White House’s Blue Room – also on the State Floor – with Wall Street “bundlers” and other major fundraisers, sparking controversy over the use of the White House for political fundraisers.

Bundlers are fundraisers who solicit large donations from other people, organizing them into a fundraising network for a political candidate. They are a key part of any campaign’s fundraising effort, and will be critical to the reelection efforts of Obama.

According to a Washington Post report, Obama is currently engaged in a large, behind-the-scenes push to win over such bundlers, needing them to fund an early roll-out of his national reelection campaign.

According to background information provided by the White House, Obama is doing what previous presidents have done, courting big-money donors and party big-wigs, noting that Republican presidents have hosted similar events for large donors and party officials.

The White House noted that then-Vice President Dick Cheney hosted Republican Party donors at his official residence in 2001, an event that George W. Bush’s press secretary, Ari Fleisher, defended as a way to say “thank you” to those who had helped elect President Bush.

However, the DNC meeting hosted by Obama came well after he was elected in 2008 and only months before he would announce his reelection bid, suggesting that instead of saying thank you, the meetings were focused on the president’s reelection.

Among the attendees at the Feb. 25 even were several DNC super-delegates, the chairman of the Mississippi Democratic Party, the executive directors of the New Jersey and Louisiana Democratic parties, and the grandson of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.