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Tareq and Michaele Salahi, the “party crashers” at the White House state dinner last Tuesday, went on The Today Show this morning to tell their side of the story. Michaele has a really husky Lohan-esque voice and she seemed a little looped to me in the video, like she had some pharmaceutical courage to achieve the ideal state of numbness before the interview. Maybe she’s always like that. Tareq kind of stumbled over his words and came across like a bumbling idiot. He had to be saved by Michaele when he started repeating himself. Overall he didn’t say much except that he was cooperating with the secret service, that they have “documentation” that supposedly amounts to an invitation, and that the fallout was really negative for them.
The two claimed they had “documentation via e-mail” that they were allowed at dinner, but it took them a while to get to the point. They were very sheepish and kind of wishy-washy when it came to confirming whether they were invited. To me they were saying one thing but they looked guilty as hell and didn’t seem convinced they were tell telling the truth.
The Salahis didn’t say who invited them and never used the words “invited” or “tickets.” They also said they’re “devastated” and that their “lives have been destroyed” by the negative press. Michaele ridiculously stated that everything she’d worked for over the past 44 years was “destroyed.”
This isn’t the first time these two were caught crashing a Washington event. They were told to leave a $20,000 per table Congressional Black Caucus dinner where Obama was the featured speaker. A spokesperson for the Congressional Black Caucus confirms that the Salahis were asked to leave when they sat in another couple’s seats and couldn’t show tickets.
Tareq said he was invited to that CBC event by a law firm and was a “proud guest of theirs.” He called the story that they were escorted out “another gossip rumor just unfortunately like how this story got started through a gossip column.” That’s just one example of how he really tripped over his words.
The spokesperson for the Congressional Black Caucus says that Bravo, which puts out the show “The Real Housewives of DC,” requested permission to film during the dinner. They were denied, and now she thinks there’s a connection and that the Salahis were the intended subject. Michaele is reportedly gunning for a place on “Real Housewives.” The Associated Press reports that Michaele and Tareq were filmed by Bravo preparing for the state dinner they “allegedly” crashed.
This story gets a little weirder. There’s a statement from a Pentagon official denying that she invited the Salahis to the State Dinner and stating that she didn’t have the authority to do so anyway. Apparently the Salahis tried to wrangle an invite out of her and when she shot them down they went anyway:
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.”
[From AP via Google]
It looks like these two have a history of trying to manipulate and influence people. As Jaybird reported yesterday, one of their businesses is in bankruptcy and they’ve been either the plaintiff or defendant in no less than 16 lawsuits. Through sheer will and scheming the Salahis managed to show up at the White House and hobnob with the President, Vice President and Chief of Staff. They’ve been busted now, though, and they come across like teenagers trying to spin behavior they know is wrong. The Salahis also claimed that despite previous reports they didn’t get paid for their Today Show interview and never asked for any money. Yeah, and they didn’t crash the White House either. Maybe no one would pony up their fee.
Photos are from Facebook. Despite how “devastated” Michaele is, she still has a public Facebook account with plenty of pictures from the event.
Written by Celebitchy
Posted in Michaele Salahi, Tareq Salahi
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34 Responses to “White House party crashers on the Today Show: “our lives have been destroyed””
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I will never understand why women of a certain age insist up dyeing their hair that horrid shade of bleach-blonde. It looks bad enough on younger women but somehow gross and sad on a woman who should know better.
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They should be devastated by the fact that they are tacky, attention whoring pretenders.
Either you have an invite or you don’t. I doubt that the White House hands out E-Vites (email invitations)and they are liars who, like Balloon Boy’s parents, tripped themselves up and now are going to pay for their desperation to be “Society” folk/reality stars.
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This story just gets more and more pathetic. I think all these famewhores – Dina Lohan, Paris Hilton, the Gosselins, Octomom and now the Party Crashers – should all be sent off to their own island where they can just waste away one by one.
How in the world could anyone think an e-mail talking about the WH dinner was a proper WHITE HOUSE invitation. Stupid and pathetic.
At least now, real celebrities will see them coming from a mile away and duck away before the camera comes out.
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If their lives have, as they claim, been “destroyed” who else can they blame but themselves? Teaches them not to crash another party to which they haven’t been invited. Good riddance.
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I hope these people will be publicly shunned, that is the only punishment that would inflict true pain on them. They don’t want to be ignored.
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Sigh. why do twats do interviews and when they are specifically asked a question ‘ did you get an invite?’ they don’t say yes or no. I mean, really, it is just a yes or no question.
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And I have a nasty feeling they will spin their lawsuits and bankruptcy on being publicly humiliated. They seem to not have any sense of responsibility.
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Look at her crazy eyes when she says that she was invited to the White House. She’s lying so hard, they nearly roll to the back of her head!
(A tell-tale sign of a lie is when the fibber keeps looking to the side while he/she is talking.)
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Who do you think should play them in the movie that gets made after they write the book? I’m going with Ted Danson and Jean Kassom, Casey’s wife.
That and…well, it depends on which side they look to when the fibber is talking. Retrieval of past information causes people to look in a certain direction and it’s different person by person depending on whether they’re left handed or right handed. She may be a) stoned and trying to recall b) stupid and trying to recall c) lying her ass off or d) all of the above LOL!
And I don’t get it – he’s worked 44 years to prove himself publically an really big goof? I think he’s still got that one under control, no harm done there!
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Wow another set of people blaming others for their own folly.
Your either invited which means your back ground has been checked out by the Secret Service and your placed on a list.
Or your not, I mean really it’s not like the neighbor’s back yard BBQ, where you can show up at the last minute and walk right in or come with some one else and hope for the best.
If they were invited all they have to do is whip out the invite or envelope and show CNN or MSMNBS or FOXNEWS they can’t so they weren’t and what every kind of spin they want to spew their back ground (multitude of lawsuits) speaks clearly of what they are about.
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“Destroyed”? Puhleeze.
These people would climb through air conditioning vents to get to a party.
I vote for the island.
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It’s easy enough to tell if they were given an invite or not. The White House probably has a big list of the people who were asked to come.
This couple blows my mind. They’re leeches, frauds, and ultimate power-whores. And they’ve been doing this for a long time and that’s especially creepy. They have this…need to look important and powerful. It’s disgusting the lengths they go to achieve it.
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I think it’s funny that all sorts of garbage she posted, I think on a Facebook or MySpace page is getting debunked.
Like how she never was a cheerleader for, what was it, the Cleveland Browns? Or that she never was in Playboy.
She’s quite an attention ho.
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The question was “Who invited you?” [to the White House] and they completely dodged it.
That’s right, because the answer is “nobody”.
When asked about who invited them to the Congressional Black Caucus dinner, however, he answered immediately.
Hmmm
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Oh the lynch mob is at it again!
I checked out her facebook page yesterday and I have to admit I was really shocked by the way people are attacking the Salahi’s. Yes what they did was wrong, embarrassing, and they should be reprimanded for it, but they didn’t shoot the president or blow up the building for christ’s sake! People are saying really horrible things about them that are just really uncalled for and they need to get off their pedestal. Regardless if they crashed the dinner, they shouldn’t be treated like terrorists; there are a lot worse people out in the world and frankly I’d like to focus on getting the pedophiles, rapists, murderers off the street before we start the manhunt for the Salahi’s.
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Imagine how destroyed her life will be when they press charges. I truly hope that they throw the book at these bitches.
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@ Firestarter, I was thinking the same thing, I’m pretty sure the White House doesn’t use E-vite. If they had been invited last minute I imagine they would have been messengered an offical invite.
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@ Squirtle – You don’t know them personally, right? And yet, you checked out her facebook page… which means it’s open for public view. So clearly, SHE’S not bothered by any attacks – she could change her privacy settings if that were the case. And while it’s true that they aren’t the filthiest scum in Washington, that doesn’t mean we should be patting them on the back for being entitled fame-seeking assholes. They should be embarrassed, but I don’t think they are. They are, however, using a lot of hyperbole to try and drum up sympathy and attention… Their lives were DESTROYED? By this very bad choice THEY made. What that says to me is that all their lives consisted of (44 years of HARD WORK!) was working towards baseless infamy.
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Dodgy as….hopefully this will be the end of any public attention for these two
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According to some news program this morning, they entered the actual tent through the catering entrance, sat down at a table, and then were asked to leave and were escorted out.
Sorry but I was too undercaffeinated to remember what program this was on.
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The fact that this couple were able to get past so many layers of security and get that close to the President is more worrisome than these two “partycrashers” hurt feelings.
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No I don’t know them personally. I AGREE; they should be ashamed for what they did, but people are threatening their lives and making horrible accusations just because they are angry. I just think there are so many more important things to worry about in this country right now.
The media is so focused on this stupid incident it’s completely losing focus on the important issues of the week, like the fact that Obama is sending 30,000 more troops to the war.
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Security personnel (those all-important government agents) are the ones who should be embarrassed. Geeze, what were THEY thinking? Many, many heads should roll before those of the party crashers.
Instead of prosecuting the Salahis, the president should be thanking them for helping clear out the incompetents that let them through. Better party crashers than terrorists.
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All the comments about “attention seeking fame whores” should be prefaced by “as it turns out they are” I was reading in the paper today about a Thanksgiving only older people (like me) remember, the one we didn’t celebrate as a Nation the year JFK was shot because he wanted to ride in a convertible and the Secret Service agreed. We should be so relieved as a Nation that they didn’t have harmful intent. Whatever your politics Obama is the most threatened President in our history and no one who has not had a background check should be able to be close enough to him to hurt him. I sympathize with those of you too young to remember our President getting his head blown to bits but it makes the rest of us take the security of our Leaders very seriously and when we read about antics like these it makes us angry that this is not taken seriously enough. As it turns out we are not having a state funeral this weekend! During a brutal 10 year period I personally lived through the assassinations of JFK, RFK and Martin Luther King Jr. Please Guys, know that this couple deserves to have their lives turned upside down, this should be a wake up call to Secret Service, the White House and all of us.
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Destroyed?
rug abuse destroys lives.
Get over yourselves!
:Hurricane Katrina destroyed lives.
:911 destroyed lives.
:Wars destroy lives.
What a bunch of goons!
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@Kathie- out of curiosity, where do you get that Obama is the most threatened president in US history? Please provide a link to the article or stats on that.
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According to a round table discussion I saw on CNN about 3 months ago Obama’s Whitehouse has recieved a larger number of death threats than the previous administrations during the same period in office. I’m sorry I cannot provide a link to the info Firestarter, it was a comment made by a “talking head” who may indeed not know what they were talking about. I took their word for it perhaps I should not have and apologize if this is bad information.
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I thought they destroyed their lives after going bankrupt and being sued a bunch of times.
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Thankfully the secret service does not publicize the amount of threats to the Pres., but you can surmise that President Obama has been one of the most threatened. Rep. Peter King, Republican congressman from NY was one person who said he was probably the most threatened president. Of all the candidates for Pres. ever, he received secret service protection the earliest, due to threats. No matter what you think of the Pres. the secret service shouldn’t let this happen.
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I hope they make an example out of these two idiots. Ban them from any Reality shows for life or 20 years in the pin.
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Thank you, Kathie, for your insight. I barely remember even Reagan getting shot. I thought hard about what that must have been like, to see so many young, vibrant leaders be cut down violently. I think this nation would be devastated if any harm came to President Obama. There is no excuse for such a lapse, and perhaps the two idiots were a blessing in disguise in that the weak links in security can be fixed. (Not that they deserve praise; I cannot FATHOM why they were not arrested on the spot). I don’t care that no harm came to the President this time, or their stupid intentions. They COULD HAVE been assassins and they could have broken his neck in a split second. Don’t ever say it couldn’t happen. I didn’t think a lot of bad things could happen. Then I watched the Towers burn from the end of my street, with my own eyes, because I wouldn’t believe the television. Our President could have been killed that night. This CANNOT happen again.
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yeah i gotta say, i care more about that safety of our president than these people. whose names i refuse to waste the brain cells to learn.
why isn’t the head of the secret service being interviewed about how such a blatant security breach could occur?
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My heart bleeds. If they didn’t want their lives to be ruined they should have kept their asses home. They’re damn lucky they are not sitting in jail.
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Too bad, with their blatant disregard for telling the truth it serves them right, they are lucky they haven’t been formally charged with trespassing. Their life is pretty much fake anyway, maybe now they can make a real life..doubt it though, some poseurs don’t know when to quit!
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