White House Press Corps Hammers Gibbs On Party Crashers; He Blames Secret Service
The White House press corps peppered Press Secretary Robert Gibbs with questions about the party crashers, Michaele and Tareq Salahi, and he appeared to place the blame squarely on the Secret Service.
During today’s briefing, several correspondents tried to get Gibbs to expand on the announced investigation and vague public comments by the Secret Service. They didn’t have much luck.
“I think the Secret Service, through the director, has admitted that somebody who wasn’t on the list, who wasn’t waved in, was allowed into an event that clearly, he said, shouldn’t be,” said Gibbs to a question from CNN’s Ed Henry.
But what about the social office at the White House? Why weren’t they involved in the process at all, and why are they exempt from blame? It was a question raised, repeatedly, by April Ryan of the American Urban Radio Networks. “None of that relay happened between the Secret Service and the social office,” said Gibbs. “The relay didn’t happen because nobody picked up the phone to relay the information.”
But Gibbs assured he was not concerned for the safety of the President. As for why – no real answer was given. But he did tell Chip Reid of CBS News, “The reason there’s an investigation is because the President and the White House has asked for that to happen…The President is rightly concerned about what happened last week.”
So he’s concerned. But! “The President has faith in the Secret Service, always has, and that’s not about to change,” said Gibbs during the latter part of the questions from all corners of the briefing room.
That’s about all that was gleaned from the briefing today, before a frustrated Gibbs got the press corps to move on to other topics. But this is certainly not going away – and with the White House’s stubborn insistence their social office had no part in the mistake, the blame game continues.
Here’s the key part of the briefing today:
