The first in-depth interview with the ‘don’t call us White House party crashers’ was brief — about one minute, with the “Today” show’s Matt Lauer teasing, “we’ll talk a lot in our next half hour”
In the first part of the interview around 7:04amET, Tareq Salahi did all the talking, telling viewers the incident last Tuesday night and the revelations since, have been “The most devastating thing that’s ever happened to us.”
“We did not party crash the White House,” said Salahi.
Lauer then mentioned the Salahis were about to reveal “a dramatic and unexpected turn” in the story.
“We are co-operting extensively with the Secret Service,” said Salahi. “We have great respect for the Secret Service and great respect for the presidency of President Obama … and the truth will soon come out.”
But not before 7:30amET on NBC, and maybe not even then.
> More: When the interview continued at 7:34am, the first question from Lauer was: “Are you appearing here today in any way because of any financial deal that you have made with this network? Are we paying you for this appearance in any way?”
“No we are not,” said Michaele Salahi, adding, “And at no time, Matt, have we ever… uh… even talked about doing that with anyone.”
Michaele Salahi said they were invited to the dinner, adding, “There isn’t anyone that would have the audacity or the poor behavior to do that. The White House is THE house. And no one would do that. And certainly not us.”
Tareq Salahi promised: “We’re going to be coming up to New York City and the [Today show] couch,” to share documents proving the validity of their invitation. And instead of discussing their appearance before a House committee on Thursday, Salahi was more inclined to talk about a follow-up Today show chat: “We’re prepared to come up there, hopefully, very soon,” he said, later adding, “We are looking forward to coming up to see you, Matt.”
Lauer did not ask the Salahis about their possible role in the D.C. iteration of Bravo’s “Real Housewives.