Former storyteller assistant was once introduced by Obama

The former White House deputy chief of staff said she was once introduced to a senator's assistant by Barack Obama.

Barack Obama and Alyssa Mastromonaco in 2012. Photo: White House.

In an interview with The Times on July 25, Alyssa Mastromonaco recalled that Barack Obama introduced her to a staffer for Senator Tom Harkin in 2006, when the two were returning to Chicago from Iowa. Obama, then an Illinois senator, noticed that the staffer liked Ms. Mastromonaco.

"Obama turned to me and said, 'He really likes you. If you don't email him, I will,'" Mastromonaco wrote in her book "Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?" about her time working with Obama. "He held up the phone as if to say, 'I'll do it.'"

Ms. Mastromonaco then contacted Harkin's staff and the two went on several dates.

Mastromonaco began working for Obama in early 2005 and followed him to the White House. She was in charge of planning Obama's foreign trips. She became deputy chief of staff at the age of 34, the youngest person ever to hold the position.

She resigned in 2014, after six years in the White House, and is now the CEO of a television company.

According to VNE