Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Did Brian Williams fabricate his Salahi gatecrashing story?

Of course you remember the Salahis--the poseur Virginia couple, Michaele and Tareq, who gatecrashed President Obama's first White House state dinner in 2009.

Would you believe that there is a Brian Williams angle to that story?

The NBC news anchor, currently under suspension for fabricating stories about being fired upon in 2003 in Iraq, is also being accused of venturing into Neverland with his tales about Hurricane Katrina. He was a guest at that notorious state dinner held in honor of the Indian prime minister. Really, he was.

From Adweek's TVnewser in 2009:
Another of the tvnewsers at the dinner, Brian Williams, always the reporter [emphasis mine], noticed something funny before he even got to the White House. He and his wife Jane were delayed by the Salahis. Williams tells NBC News, "What attracted our attention was, there was at least one camera trailing them, and a make-up woman got out and fixed the woman's hair and started powdering the man's forehead. My wife and I thought that was strange for people who were dressed like state dinner guests."

Williams says he spotted them again, on White House property. "We encountered them during cocktails and I remember saying to my wife 'That's them, that's the couple we saw on the street with the make-up detail and the camera following them.'"
Did Williams and his wife really witness the Sahalis being turned away the first time they tried to crash the party? I wasn't invited--really, I wasn't--but media accounts agree that it was raining on the night of the state dinner. So was Tareq Salahi beneath an umbrella when his forehead was being powdered--or was his make-up artist lucky to catch a break from the precipitation? Or was Mr. Salahi beneath an umbrella when he was getting his faced touched-up? If so, the umbrella could have obscured Williams' view.

Then again, perhaps Williams made up this narrative too.

The Salahis divorced in 2012.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did Ronald Reagan fabricate his Brandenburg Gate-Crashing story?. Reagan told Israeli Premier Yitzhak Shamir in 1983 that he and his unit personally filmed the liberation of Nazi death camps. Heroic Ronny, of course, spent the entire war in Culver City, CA. That fabrication certainly had nothing on his later, "we did not trade weapons for hostages," when he famously was selling arms to Iran (yes, THAT Iran) to secure the release of 7 hostages, and funneling the profits to arm the fascist resistance in Nicaragua. (See Impeachable Offenses, High Crimes).

Marathon Pundit said...

Dude, you posted this before on another thread. Serial fabulist Brian Williams takes leave of absence

Anonymous said...

It warrants repetition. Williams lies warrant suspension. Reagan's warranted impeachment. Which bothers you more, patriot?