White House party crashers to tell their story on NBC as defense official denies helping them
By Eileen Sullivan, APTuesday, December 1, 2009
White House party crashers to tell their story
WASHINGTON — A week after they crashed the Obama administration’s first state dinner, Michaele and Tareq Salahi are telling their side of the story on U.S. television.
The Salahis were scheduled to be interviewed Tuesday morning by Matt Lauer on NBC’s “Today.” Despite reports that the couple was seeking payment to be interviewed, an NBC spokeswoman insisted, “No money changed hands.”
NBC’s parent company, NBC Universal, also owns the cable network Bravo. Michaele Salahi had hoped to land a part on an upcoming Bravo reality show, “The Real Housewives of D.C.”
On Monday there were more twists in the unfolding mystery of how the Virginia couple managed to get into the White House dinner Nov. 24 and shake hands with President Barack Obama.
It was revealed that they communicated with a senior Pentagon official about going to the event, but the official denied that she helped the couple get in.
Michele Jones, a special assistant to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, said in a written statement issued through the White House that she never said or implied she would get the Salahis into the event.
“I specifically stated that they did not have tickets and in fact that I did not have the authority to authorize attendance, admittance or access to any part of the evening’s activities,” Jones said. “Even though I informed them of this, they still decided to come.”
WTTG-TV, the Fox affiliate in Washington, reported on a similar incident a month before, in which the Salahis sneaked in through a back entrance to a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Awards dinner at which Obama spoke. A guest complained that the couple didn’t belong at his table.
“I double-checked my (guest) list and when they weren’t on that list we escorted them out,” a foundation representative, Lance Jones, said in an interview early Tuesday.
Also on Monday, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee asked the couple, Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan and White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers to testify at a hearing Thursday on the incident.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said he wants answers about the Secret Service’s security deficiencies that allowed the Salahis to attend the White House dinner. A White House photo showed the Salahis in the receiving line in the Blue Room with Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in whose honor the dinner was held.
“This is a time for answers,” Thompson said in a statement Monday. “This is not the time for political games or scapegoating to distract our attention from the careful oversight we must apply to the Secret Service and its mission.”
Some lawmakers have called for criminal charges to be brought against the couple, but the Secret Service has not yet decided whether to refer the case for criminal prosecution.
The Secret Service declined to comment on whether Sullivan would testify Thursday.
The couple’s publicist, Mahogany Jones, could not immediately be reached for comment about whether the Salahis would testify Thursday. But earlier Monday, she said allegations that the Salahis were shopping interviews and demanding money from television networks to tell their story are false.
A TV executive who spoke on condition of anonymity to publicly discuss bookings told The Associated Press that the couple’s representatives had urged networks to “get their bids in” for an interview.
Associated Press writers Julie Pace and Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.
