The Secret Service is investigating how a fame-seeking couple crashed President Obama’s first state dinner Tuesday night, gliding in past security with no invitation and taking photos with Vice President Biden and others.
“First and foremost, we have to find out what happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Secret Service spokesman Jim Mackin told TPM. “I think our procedures were good. We had a suitable amount of personnel. [But] our personnel didn’t follow the procedure.”
Michaele and Tareq Salahi, who are trying to get on the Bravo reality show “Real Housewives of Washington,” were not on the guest list to the official event, but somehow made it past a gauntlet of security checkpoints.
Rumors that Service agents didn’t have a guest list are not true, Mackin said. He also downplayed reports that the Service is opening a criminal investigation. The option is on the table, he said, but it’s too early to tell if they’ll make that move.
In his 24 years with the Service, Mackin said, he could not recall a similar incident.
The couple did pass through metal detectors, he said.
“It’s not like they slipped through a fence,” he said.
There’s still a lot the Service doesn’t know, Mackin said, or isn’t ready to share with the press. How close did the two get to the President, the First Lady, or the Indian prime minister? Did they make it to the main tent where the dinner was held, or only the rooms leading to it?
And how did they get in?
The Salahis, whose Virginia winery filed for bankruptcy in February, are attempting to become part of the cast of the Beltway edition of the extremely popular “Housewives” series, which follows wealthy women in a handful of different cities.
A camera crew was reportedly with the couple Tuesday night — filming Michaele Salahi’s seven-hour trip to a salon to get ready — but did not follow them into the White House. A spokesman for the local production company doing the filming, Half Yard Productions, said in a statement that they took the couple at their word that they had an invitation.
But they didn’t. NBC’s Brian Williams reported seeing their SUV turned away from the White House, at which point they piled out with a makeup woman, who touched up their hair and face powder.
Once inside, the couple took pictures with Biden, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty. Michaele posted the pictures to her Facebook a few hours later.
The couple’s publicist told the Washington Post that the couple will be appearing on media outlets, including Larry King Live on Monday night.
