Top Obama aide is demoted

last updated 8 January 2015

Just 10 months into his tenure as White House chief of staff, William Daley is stepping away from some day-to-day duties in what political observers are calling a “demotion.” White House missteps in the debt-ceiling fight and in its relations with Republicans and Democrats in Congress are said to be behind the move. Senior adviser Pete Rouse, a longtime “fixer” and confidant of President Obama, will assume an expanded coordination role in the West Wing. Daley, 63, “took some heat for the problems with Congress,” said a White House source, including the scheduling foul-up this summer over the president’s address to the joint session of Congress.