NATIONAL BRIEFING / AND FINALLY . . .
The White House may have scored a stroke for gender equality in presidential sports: President Obama’s chief domestic policy advisor, Melody Barnes, became the first woman to play in the president’s golf foursome.
She joined Obama, White House trip director Marvin Nicholson and Dr. Eric Whitaker, Obama’s friend and executive vice president at the University of Chicago Medical Center, for a round on the Army’s Ft. Belvoir golf course in Virginia, White House Deputy Press Secretary William Burton confirmed.
Obama has been criticized for playing basketball with only men, most recently in Sunday’s New York Times.
“He golfed with women on the campaign trail,” Burton said, but Barnes was the first to join Obama on the links since he became president.
Get the L.A. Times Politics newsletter
Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond. In your inbox three times per week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
