WASHINGTON — The White House will make at least one change to its screening practices for invitation-only events after an attention-hungry couple was able to crash the Obama administration’s first state dinner.
The White House social office will go back to making sure that one of its staff members will be present at the gates to help the Secret Service if questions come up, the first lady’s communication director, Camille Johnston, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
While Johnston maintained that this has been an existing policy, the White House and Secret Service have said that no such person was present last week as guests arrived for the dinner. The Secret Service has taken the blame for letting the couple in without an invitation.
An administration official said Tuesday evening that a senior Pentagon official did try to get the Virginia couple, Tareq and Michaele Salahi, access to the White House state dinner but later told them in a voice mail that she couldn’t get them in.
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama were described Tuesday as angered by the incident, and the Salahis asked a national television audience to take their word that they were invited to the dinner for the visiting Indian prime minister.
Congress is mounting an effort to get to the bottom of the episode. Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan is expected to testify Thursday before the House homeland-security committee about the incident. The Salahis and White House social secretary Desiree Rogers have also been invited to testify.
“I can tell you we did not party-crash the White House,” Tareq Salahi told NBC’s “Today” show Tuesday morning. NBC’s parent company, NBC Universal, also owns the cable network Bravo, where Michaele Salahi has been trying to land a part on a reality show.
The Salahis said on “Today” that they had e-mails that would make clear they did not go to the White House uninvited, but said they could not yet provide them while they were cooperating in the Secret Service investigation.
Earlier this year, the Salahis attended a Congressional Black Caucus party, and questions have arisen about whether they were invited to that affair, which they were asked to leave when they were unable to produce tickets for the seats they were occupying.
