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| December 16, 2009 | Accidental tourists enjoy breakfast with the Obamas | | Washington: A retired couple from Georgia travelled to Washington for a tour of the White House and ended up having breakfast with President Obama and US First Lady Michelle Obama. What should have been an amusing holiday anecdote to tell grandchildren, however, has raised further questions about White House security, specifically how people not on an event guest list wind up in the presidential mansion anyway. According to The Times, the improbable adventure of Harvey and Paula Darden took place two weeks before Virginia socialites Tareq and Michaele Salahi infamously
crashed the Obamas' state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The
Dardens mistakenly showed up a day early for a tour scheduled through their congressman.
The White House and Secret Service both said the Dardens went through the appropriate
security screenings and were allowed into the breakfast as a courtesy because
there were no public tours the day they arrived. That explanation was news to
Harvey Darden, 67, a retired pharmacist, who said he and his wife never were told
about the breakfast. They thought they were simply starting their tour until they
were ushered into the East Room, offered a buffet spread and told they would be
meeting the president. Darden said: "The further we got into the White House,
the more surprised we were. My wife looked at me, and I looked at her, and I said,
'You know, I don't know if we're in the right place'." They approached a White
House aide with their concern that they had veered off course but were told to
"just go with the flow," he added. "I felt kind of funny because I was the only
man in the room that wasn't dressed in a coat and tie," he said. Secret Service
spokesman Ed Donovan said agents performed the same screening procedures on the
Dardens that were used for other breakfast guests. They checked the Dardens' names
and did a criminal background check - steps that were not taken for the Salahis
at the state dinner on November 24. Because the Dardens were able to pass Secret
Service vetting, they were allowed to attend the breakfast for veterans as a "nice
gesture", White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said. He added that it is not unusual
for White House staff to take people who are cleared in for tours to other events
if there is space, including Marine One arrivals, East Room events and Rose Garden
ceremonies. Shapiro said the White House Office of Public Engagement, which Obama
created to engage citizens in White House activities, was responsible for clearing
in the Dardens, as well as the other breakfast guests. Darden said it was "quite
a treat" to meet the Obamas and the Bidens. | |
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