MATT LAUER, co-host:
But
let us
begin this half-hour with
Tareq
and
Michaele Salahi
, the controversial couple accused of crashing the
White House state
dinner last fall. Last week during another
state dinner
, the
Secret Service
stopped the
Salahis
limo driver for running a
red light
after he tried to
turn into
a restricted park very close to the
White House
. We'll have an exclusive interview with the couple in a moment, but first an update. It was the
Obamas
' second
state dinner
for the president and first lady of
Mexico
.
President BARACK OBAMA:
Cheers. Salut.
LAUER:
Accused party crashers
Tareq
and
Michaele Salahi
told
NBC News
it was just "an unbelievable coincidence" that they were so close to the
White House
. They were accompanied by a
camera crew
from "
Inside Edition
" and told authorities they were on their way to a nearby restaurant for a
dinner party
with friends.
Offscreen Voice:
Mr. and Mrs. Salahi.
LAUER:
In November, the
Salahis
grabbed worldwide attention when they made it through several
Secret Service
checkpoints, gaining entrance to a
state dinner
for the prime minister of
India
, even meeting
President Obama
and Vice President
Biden
. Appearing here on TODAY, they denied crashing that dinner.
Ms. Michaele SALAHI:
Well, we were invited, not crashers, and there isn't anyone that would have the audacity or the poor behavior to do that.
LAUER:
The White House
said they were not invited and the incident led to the dismissal of prominent social secretary
Desiree Rogers
. Subpoenaed to testify before
Congress
, the
Salahis
took the fifth.
Mr. TAREQ SALAHI:
On the advice of counsel, I respectfully assert my rights.
Unidentified Man:
Let me ask you a question, were you there?
Mr. SALAHI:
On the advice of counsel...
Man:
Are you here today, Mr.
Salahi
? Are you here right now?
LAUER:
And in a recent interview, the
Salahis
said they deserve an apology.
Mr. SALAHI:
It would be nice if somebody apologized to us or if somebody would...
Ms. SALAHI:
I would just like to move forward.
Mr. SALAHI:
...just call it quits.
LAUER:
The publicity-seeking couple could still face charges for crashing the
state dinner
last year, and while
NBC
's sister
cable network
Bravo
has not officially announced that the
Salahis
are part of the cast, it's been widely reported that they will be part of the popular franchise "The
Real Housewives
of
D.C.
"
Tareq
and
Michaele Salahi
, good morning. Good to see you two.
Ms. SALAHI:
Good morning.
Mr. SALAHI:
Good morning.
LAUER:
Welcome back.
Ms. SALAHI:
Good morning,
Matt.
LAUER:
Let's just start with last week, OK.
Ms. SALAHI:
OK.
LAUER:
On the night of the second
Obama
administration
state dinner
, you're in a limo. That limo runs a
red light
, tries to make an illegal turn onto
The Ellipse
or into
The Ellipse
, which is directly adjacent to the
White House
, basically. You're stopped by
Secret Service
uniformed officers and detained
for a little while
. And in the limo with you is a
camera crew
. Why?
Mr. SALAHI:
Yeah, well, first, you know, that night the limo driver actually never pulled into a restricted area. You know, we're in the back, so obviously we weren't giving directions or anything to the limo driver, but you know, we were driving down
Constitution Avenue
to turn up to 17th and I to go to
Kellari
and then onward to the
Buddha Bar
.
LAUER:
A friend's
dinner party
.
Mr. SALAHI:
Yeah.
Ms. SALAHI:
Yes.
Mr. SALAHI:
We had a
dinner party
planned.
LAUER:
Why did you have a
camera crew
with you to go to a friend's
dinner party
?
Ms. SALAHI:
We were doing a lifestyle report.
Mr. SALAHI:
That's right
.
Ms. SALAHI:
And we've done this over the last decade quite a bit.
Mr. SALAHI:
Well, and more recently, you know, for a lot of activities that are -- that are surrounding us that we're involved in.
LAUER:
Let me throw the speculation at you, OK?
Ms. SALAHI:
Right.
LAUER:
Night of the second
state dinner
. We all know what happened on the night of the first
state dinner
. And the cynics out there are saying here come the
Salahis
. They want to get close to the
White House
again with a
camera crew
. They want that photo op standing in front of the gate of the
White House
on the night of the second
state dinner
. You say?
Mr. SALAHI:
No.
Ms. SALAHI:
No.
Mr. SALAHI:
Not true. We had the -- you know, the
camera crew
in there and then we were going to the
dinner party
. That was planned for weeks.
Ms. SALAHI:
Right. To gather all our friends together and get a, you know, a night with them.
Mr. SALAHI:
Even our attorneys were actually at the
dinner party
and even came down when we got stopped.
Ms. SALAHI:
Yeah.
LAUER:
So pure coincidence. Not an attempt at further publicity based on the date and the timing?
Ms. SALAHI:
No. Right. And the actual -- in the front seat with the limo driver was the
Virginia Tourism Corporation
, one of the representatives. And she was in the front seat with that driver.
LAUER:
All right.
Let's go
back to the first
state dinner
. When you were on this program
just a couple of days
, at the time of the
white hot
media
spotlight on you guys and there was a lot you told me you couldn't tell me.
Ms. SALAHI:
Right.
LAUER:
You couldn't speak about at that time. So let me ask you now. You've told me there's a lot of evidence you have that will completely exonerate you in terms of trying to crash that dinner. What is the most significant piece of evidence you can share with me right now that clears you in that case?
Mr. SALAHI:
Well, we have -- certainly we have witnesses that...
Ms. SALAHI:
Third-party
witnesses.
Mr. SALAHI:
That listened to conservations...
Ms. SALAHI:
right.
Mr. SALAHI:
...that have been, you know, recorded -- affidavits and declarations that have been done. That...
LAUER:
Do those witnesses say, yes, you were invited to that party?
Ms. SALAHI:
Yes, without a doubt.
LAUER:
And those are credible witnesses...
Ms. SALAHI:
Those are credible...
LAUER:
...from within the
White House
or the administration or someone else with an official title?
Ms. SALAHI:
Yes.
Mr. SALAHI:
That's right
.
That's right
.
Ms. SALAHI:
An official title.
Mr. SALAHI:
It was a
phone call
that we had, a
conference call
. And there were witnesses to that call.
LAUER:
Can I say the name of the person on that
conference call
? It was
Michelle Jones
, correct?
Ms. SALAHI:
Correct.
Mr. SALAHI:
That's right
.
LAUER:
Your contact within the
Pentagon
and contact within the
Obama
administration. And according to a document you've shown us, we don't have right in front of us, after this all happened, after the
media
glare, after the accusations of crashing the party, you had a conversation with her where she said, `This is all just a big misunderstanding.'
Ms. SALAHI:
Right.
Mr. SALAHI:
Absolutely right.
Ms. SALAHI:
It's been a series of misunderstandings over six months and recently we saw the vice president, Vice President
Biden
and
President Obama
speak at the correspondents' dinner and joked about us.
Mr. SALAHI:
Yeah.
Ms. SALAHI:
And that's why we decided to come today. We thought if they can joke about us, maybe it's time just everyone move forward.
LAUER:
The conversation that you had printed out on that affidavit, I believe it was an affidavit.
Ms. SALAHI:
Yes.
Mr. SALAHI:
Yes.
LAUER:
Have you shown that to the
Secret Service
and law enforcement and have they seemed to be convinced by it?
Ms. SALAHI:
Yes.
Mr. SALAHI:
Yeah, yeah.
Ms. SALAHI:
They've seen it.
Mr. SALAHI:
Yeah, they've seen it.
Ms. SALAHI:
They, in fact, stated...
Mr. SALAHI:
Yeah, they're the first ones to say...
Ms. SALAHI:
...could this be a misunderstanding.
Mr. SALAHI:
...this appears to be a misunderstanding.
LAUER:
Michaele
, I want to ask you about another thing I wanted to ask you the first time. There were reports that on the day of the first
state dinner
, you were in a salon getting ready.
Ms. SALAHI:
Right.
LAUER:
And you were asked about this. You were talking to people, we're going to the
White House
tonight. And somebody asked you to see your invitation and you said it's in the car. In truth there was no invitation. You never in possession of...
Ms. SALAHI:
No. I...
LAUER:
So why did you say that?
Ms. SALAHI:
You know, I was asked to say that to go along with something. And the stylist I had just met five minutes prior and I asked her, first of all, someone I just meet...
LAUER:
Asked by who to say that?
Ms. SALAHI:
That's, you know, we'll have to wait and see. I can't share that.
LAUER:
But who told you to share something that wasn't true. I mean, that would be important.
Mr. SALAHI:
Well, that -- no, that's a good point.
Ms. SALAHI:
That is a very good point.
Mr. SALAHI:
That's a very good point. So let's talk about that for a second. Because I was witness to that and that's something that probably took about 10 or 12 different shots to take that day.
LAUER:
So this wasn't -- there were cameras there, we want to mention.
Ms. SALAHI:
Right.
LAUER:
The cameras weren't just recording spontaneous conversations?
Ms. SALAHI:
It was just a...
LAUER:
It was scripted?
Mr. SALAHI:
It's...
Ms. SALAHI:
I asked her, why are you asking me? I would never even share...
LAUER:
You asked who?
Ms. SALAHI:
The hairstylist.
LAUER:
Uh-huh
.
Ms. SALAHI:
And she said, `I'm sorry,
Michaele
, I'm being told to ask you this.'
Mr. SALAHI:
That's right
.
LAUER:
By...
Ms. SALAHI:
Yeah.
Mr. SALAHI:
By producers.
Ms. SALAHI:
Producers.
LAUER:
OK. So you're leaving open more questions that you're answering on this, you realize that.
Mr. SALAHI:
Well...
Ms. SALAHI:
Well, no, it was producers.
LAUER:
OK.
Ms. SALAHI:
They had told us.
LAUER:
All right.
Mr. SALAHI:
And unfortunately, we both signed
NDAs
with that organization.
LAUER:
Non-disclosure agreements.
Mr. SALAHI:
Non-disclosures.
Ms. SALAHI:
Right.
Mr. SALAHI:
And we're not allowed to talk about a lot of things that, you know, that happened related to that.
LAUER:
You have not been completely cleared. It's still a possibility that charges could be filed. Do you know why you've been left twisting in the wind a little bit?
Ms. SALAHI:
I'm not certain, but recently, like I said, I saw them both making jokes about us and I feel in my heart if someone's making a joke about you, the president and vice president, they wouldn't want to hurt you.
LAUER:
You said on this piece of tape that we ran earlier that you would like an apology or at least, you know,
end of the road
type thing. It's probably not -- you're probably not going to get an apology from the
White House
here.
Mr. SALAHI:
Well...
Ms. SALAHI:
You wanted to clarify.
LAUER:
You both realize that.
Mr. SALAHI:
Well, let me clarify that. I at no time did I ask for an apology from the
White House
and I'm still not. When that was done and that was done months ago...
Ms. SALAHI:
Five months ago.
Mr. SALAHI:
...I was very troubled with the way the
media
was treating us, the way the
media
was coming to our home, going through our cars, looking at our registration.
Ms. SALAHI:
The
media
.
Mr. SALAHI:
Really invading, you know, our privacy and our home. You know, other networks and some of those people...
Ms. SALAHI:
And they prejudged.
Mr. SALAHI:
And being prejudged by members of
Congress
.
Ms. SALAHI:
Yeah, we were being called con artists.
Mr. SALAHI:
Before the hearing even got started, gotten started.
Ms. SALAHI:
Yeah, so we hadn't even gone to it.
Mr. SALAHI:
We were being told, oh, you're guilty before we can go there.
Ms. SALAHI:
Right.
Mr. SALAHI:
That's really one of the main reasons we had to take the fifth. So yeah, you know, I wanted, you know, some sort of apology by the
media
the way they treated us or by members of
Congress
calling us things before we even had a chance to even go to
Congress
.
Ms. SALAHI:
And that video was not ever supposed to be released.
Mr. SALAHI:
Yeah.
LAUER:
All right.
Mr. SALAHI:
Honestly, Matt.
Ms. SALAHI:
Yeah. That was...
Mr. SALAHI:
If anything, you know,
Michaele
and I, you know, we're sorry to the president and first lady for this -- really, the situation that's happened.
Ms. SALAHI:
The storm of
media
.
Mr. SALAHI:
The storm of
media
.
LAUER:
Short of asking for an apology from them, you're actually sorry for what this created?
Ms. SALAHI:
That they're having to...
Mr. SALAHI:
Oh, we're sorry for what this created to the president and the first lady.
Ms. SALAHI:
For everyone.
Mr. SALAHI:
Absolutely.
Ms. SALAHI:
For everyone, especially the president and first lady.
LAUER:
Final point, although our sister network
Bravo
has not confirmed it, there are -- there -- there's a lot of speculation and reports that you both will be a part of a new franchise of "
The Real
" -- there's this "
Real Housewives
" franchise that they run and they're doing one, "
Real Housewives
of
D.C.
" and that you are a part of that cast. What can you tell me about that?
Ms. SALAHI:
Oh, my gosh. I love the "
Housewives
" series. And if they're doing a show, I'll watch.
LAUER:
You'll watch or be a part of it?
Ms. SALAHI:
We have to wait and see what happens.
LAUER:
Is this at all related to this kind of area that we seem to be hedging over in terms of who told you to say what?
Mr. SALAHI:
I mean, we're just -- we're simply just prohibited. We're not allowed to talk anything about a series or anything about the...
Ms. SALAHI:
And we're happy to be here just to talk about...
Mr. SALAHI:
Yeah.
Ms. SALAHI:
...you know, that we just want to move forward.
Mr. SALAHI:
We've been -- we've been strongly told...
Ms. SALAHI:
By a lot of people not to talk about a lot of different things.
Ms. SALAHI:
Yeah.
LAUER:
OK. Which I think sets us up for round three.
Ms. SALAHI:
OK.
LAUER:
All right.
Mr. SALAHI:
Yeah.
Ms. SALAHI:
OK.
LAUER:
We will see you soon. Thank you both for stopping by.
“ ”