Exclusive: Former White House 'Gatekeeper' 'On the Record'

This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," December 2, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: There is breaking news coming into Fox about the White House party crashers. The couple declined an invitation to testify tomorrow at a Homeland Security hearing about the incident. Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson says he will move to subpoena the couple if they don't testify.

Meanwhile, White House is announcing changes in security procedures. From now on to make sure uninvited guests do not crash formal events White House staff will be stationed at checkpoints alongside the United States Secret Service.

That was the old way it was done. So, what happened? When and why did it change? You are about to meet a woman who says she used to guard the White House gates at events until her job was taken away. Joining us live is Cathy Hargraves, the former White House assistant for arrangement.

And I guess, Cathy using the word "guard" is a little bit over descriptive, but tell us what your job was at the Bush White House at these formal event?

CATHY HARGRAVES, FORMER WHITE HOUSE ASSISTANT FOR ARRANGEMENTS: Usually at formal events, I would be down at the east portico, the main door where the guests enter. And as they would walk in I would welcome them and ask them for their names and I would check them off of the list.

And usually at that point they would go through security, and we had military social aides who would escort them upstairs to the floor.

VAN SUSTEREN: How often would people come up there and their names weren't on the list?

HARGRAVES: Once or twice while I was there we had a couple or two who would come in, and they actually were there invited to an event, but the event that they were invited to had not begun yet, so they were early.

So very graciously we would have them find another place to wait, and they would sit and wait until it was time for them to go upstairs to their event.

VAN SUSTEREN: So now we have a change of administration. You are still employed with the White House, and then something happened in February to your job. What happened?

HARGRAVES: I worked for three separate social secretaries, and all social secretaries come in, and they have their own ways of doing things. And for the first two who I worked for, protocol and procedures pretty much stayed the same.

With the third one, she had her way of doing things, and she had her staff. And she just determined that the position that I had, she would find other duties for me. And being at the gate and greeting guests and checking them off of the list was just not one of them.

VAN SUSTEREN: I take it that is Desiree Rogers of the Obama administration, is that correct?

HARGRAVES: Correct.

VAN SUSTEREN: Did she say she was going to fill that position with somebody else, or did she say she was going to eliminate that position? What did you understand was going to happen?

HARGRAVES: She did not say. She just said I was no longer needed to fill that position or those requirements, that I would not be needed for that.

She did not feel as though they would be having very many state dinners or very many of official or formal dinners, and that that would not be needed.

VAN SUSTEREN: I take it that was not your own responsibility, is that correct?

HARGRAVES: No, it was not.

VAN SUSTEREN: So -- go ahead.

HARGRAVES: I spent a lot of time working with guests for all dinners, lunches, even if the president had an official working lunch. I worked with everybody involved in that just to make sure that guests were seated in the correct order and seat cards were done and place cards were in place.

And a lot of computers work, creating a lot of documents, working very closely with Secret Service, coordinating with all the offices involved with all the events that occurred that they needed help with, not just dinners. I was always there to lend a hand.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right, so sometime in June, you left the White House. Why did you leave?

HARGRAVES: For a number of reasons. The job that I was originally was hired to do was amazing. It was fabulous, and I loved everything that I did.

When my job responsibilities changed, I wasn't enjoying my work as much. And my husband, who also is a government employee, was transferred, and I thought this would just be a good time for me to go ahead and go. So we moved out of state, and I chose to go with him on this assignment.

VAN SUSTEREN: Did you ever at any time say to Desiree Rogers when you met about this function, about checking people, basically double-checking the Secret Service, for lack of a better term, did you ever suggest to her that it might be an important function and to make sure that it's covered, or did you just make an assumption that it would be covered by someone else?

HARGRAVES: I assumed that somebody else would have taken over that position.

VAN SUSTEREN: And in terms of -- when people come into the White House, they come in hundreds often, is that right?

HARGRAVES: That is correct, yes.

VAN SUSTEREN: So that can be a rather daunting task to sort through and make sure that everyone that is admitted is suppose to be admitted?

HARGRAVES: It can be. But typically at dinners under the Bush administration, a large dinner for us was maybe 135 people in the state dining room.

And you give people maybe 30 or 45 minutes to get there. So everybody did not come at the same time. They would slowly arrive. So it was pretty easy to keep track of people coming in.

Now, when they did larger event, people did not enter the same way. There was another gate where people entered. And a lot of times there were a lot of people there, but we had more than one staff member, and it seemed very controlled. I don't think I ever saw an event that was really out of control with so many people trying to get in at once.

VAN SUSTEREN: Cathy, thank you. Good luck in Texas.

HARGRAVES: Thank you very much, Greta.

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