What Dana Perino’s Time In The White House Was Really Like

On her first day as White House press secretary, Dana Perino put on her big girl panties just as her friend advised, and it was a good thing too, because shortly after she took on her new role, President George Bush kicked her out of his office.

It was the perfect storm — a reporter was set to have an interview with Bush, and Perino’s boss, Dan Bartlett, told her to sit in on it. It was the first time Perino ever set foot in the Oval, but her stay was very short. It turned out that Bush had never agreed to the interview, and he was very irritated as a result. During an interview with Page Six, Perino revealed how it all went down. Bush called Bartlett and gave it to him straight. “The president says, ‘Wait, I’m not doing an interview with that guy. No, Dan, I said I would talk to him, I didn’t say I did an interview with him.’ Well, that was a big miscommunication,’” Perino recalled. “You can imagine who won that argument,” she added.

Once the president had dealt with Bartlett, he turned on Perino. “[He] cocked his head [and] basically said, ‘See yourself out,’” she told the outlet. She called her husband in tears after, who consoled her by saying, “Well just think, for the rest of your life, you can say, “I’ve been kicked out of better places than this.” Touché.