Socialite Reality-TV Wannabes Who Crashed White House Met President Obama

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/white-house-party-crashers-met-president-obama/story?id=9187561

The Washington-area socialites who sneaked into a White House state dinner are shown meeting President Obama at the event in a photo released by the White House.

The couple who got into the state dinner also met President Obama.The disclosure came as Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan said "the Secret Service is deeply concerned and embarrassed" by his agency's "failing" in allowing the Michaele and Tareq Salahi access to the event. Among other duties, the Secret Service is charged with protecting the president.

The photo released by the White House this evening showed President Obama shaking Michaele Salahi's hand with Tareq Salahi looking on.

"The couple who attended the event without an invitation did meet the president in the receiving line," a White House official said.

The guest of honor, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, can be seen in the background, apprarently on the same receiving line. It is standard protocol at a state dinner for the president to introduce guests in the receiving line to the visiting head of state.

Sullivan said his agency's probe into the matter continues.

"The preliminary findings of our internal investigation have determined established protocols were not followed at an initial checkpoint, [specifically, the failure to verify] that two individuals were on the guest list," he said. "As our investigation continues, appropriate measures have been taken to ensure this is not repeated."

"The men and women of the Secret Service put their lives on the line every day to protect us," Shapiro said. "They are heroes and they have the full confidence of the president of United States.

"The White House asked the United States Secret Service to do a full review and they are doing that," Shapiro added. "The United States Secret Service said they made a mistake and they are taking action to identify exactly what happened and they will take the appropriate measures pending the results of their investigation."


Salahis 'Love to Be in the Limelight'

Friends of the Salahis said the couple loves attention and said that they were invited to the White House gala event in honor of India.

"They love to be in the limelight," Casey Margenau said of Michaele and Tareq Salahi in an interview with "Good Morning America" today. "They love to be at a party, they like to be in front of everything and it would not have surprised me for them to have been invited."