# Does the president get house keys? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 25, 2009, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-president-get-house-keys/511538 "2009-09-25T16:51:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2011, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-president-get-house-keys/511538/61 "2011-03-26T19:42:14Z")
> [@YamatoTwinkie](#): > > I’d guess not. Secret service would presumably need to be able to rush in at any moment to take the president to a safe location. They’re not going to want to fumble with keycards or call the president at 3AM with nukes incoming and ask him to open the bedroom door for them. This would drive me nuts! Armed guards outside my (unlocked) bedroom door? (I’m assuming the residence is sort of like a hotel suite, and each room has a door to the outside corridor.) How am I supposed to get any sleep? :eek: ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2011, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-president-get-house-keys/511538/62 "2011-03-26T21:39:15Z")
> [@a35362](#): > > This would drive me nuts! Armed guards outside my (unlocked) bedroom door? (I’m assuming the residence is sort of like a hotel suite, and each room has a door to the outside corridor.) How am I supposed to get any sleep? :eek: ☹ I wouldn’t care when I was sleeping. The real question is: _How am I supposed to get any?_ 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-president-get-house-keys/511538/63 "2011-03-27T02:56:10Z")
I have a vague memory of an incident from the morning after Bill Clinton was first inaugurated. It was reported that there had been some kind of altercation involving Secret Service agents getting bitched out for entering the residential quarters early in the morning. I remember circumlocutions about how the first couple “wasn’t ready,” or “was caught unaware,” and other such phraseology that gave me the impression that somebody walked in on them while they were doing the wild thing. It was their very first morning in the White House, and I think they were breaking it in. I think if you were SS, or WH staff or whatever, you’d always want to give the first couple a little extra time that first morning. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-president-get-house-keys/511538/64 "2011-03-27T08:39:17Z")
I’m rather fond of the film “Chasing Liberty”, which had a couple of secret service agents trying to tail the First Daughter without being obvious about it. At one point they do in fact end up losing her, and we see one of them talking to the President on his cell phone. “Yes sir, and have I mentioned that I thought this was a horrible idea? Yes sir, your most bone headed one yet… _notices other secret service agent staring at him in horror_ …He hung up like a minute ago.” ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-president-get-house-keys/511538/65 "2011-03-27T10:01:51Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I have a vague memory of an incident from the morning after Bill Clinton was first inaugurated. It was reported that there had been some kind of altercation involving Secret Service agents getting bitched out for entering the residential quarters early in the morning. I remember circumlocutions about how the first couple “wasn’t ready,” or “was caught unaware,” and other such phraseology that gave me the impression that somebody walked in on them while they were doing the wild thing. It was their very first morning in the White House, and I think they were breaking it in. I think if you were SS, or WH staff or whatever, you’d always want to give the first couple a little extra time that first morning. Sorry, my orders would be nobody in the private residence before \*am unless it was a national emergency, or I ring. Since mrAru and I wake up around 4-430, the time that I would have SS agents in would probably be 6 am, along with the breakfast service. I can not see the need for security to actually come IN to the private residence other than to bring in the newspaper and escort the waitron from food service with breakfast. I am quite sure that the perimeter is secure enough that the private residence is considered safe for them to be unaccompanied. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-president-get-house-keys/511538/66 "2011-03-27T10:53:10Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > I think it’s the person in charge of coordinating this stuff’s killer rabbit moment. How do you not know to the exact second the President of the United States arrives. > > This is a serious security screw up. Someone should be fired over this without question. Puhhhh-leaze. So he had to walk a few feet to open another door. I know the President gets his ass kissed like nobody’s business, but that’s some ridiculous shit right there. Can you explain why it’s a “serious security screw-up”? What exactly do you think could have happened in those few seconds he was walking to the next door right outside the White House? Given all the snipers camped around the perimeter extra time to line up their shot? I mean there’s security and then there’s insanity. ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2011, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-president-get-house-keys/511538/67 "2011-03-29T06:33:17Z")
Just as an aside to what was mentioned above-Clinton apparently [misplaced](http://www.aolnews.com/2010/10/22/general-clinton-lost-the-biscuit-nuclear-codes/) something a little more important than his keys-the card with the nuclear launch codes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-president-get-house-keys/511538.md?page=3)