The Secret Service is investigating how a couple aspiring to be reality-show celebrities managed to appear at President Obama’s first state dinner on Tuesday without being on the guest list, provoking questions about security at the White House, reports the New York Times. A Virginia couple, Michaele and Tareq Salahi, slipped past multiple layers of high-level security and managed to rub shoulders, literally, with Vice President Joseph Biden and White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.
Representative Peter King, top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, told the Times he was shocked at the lack of security at the White House on Tuesday night. Since 2003, the Secret Service has been part of the Department of Homeland Security. “The fact they went through the magnometer is incidental,” he said. “They could have had anthrax on them. They could have grabbed a knife from the dining room table. The next time it will be a far worse reality than a reality TV show.”