White House Crashers: 'We Didn't Do Anything Wrong'
June 18, 2010— -- After all the bad press they received from crashing a White House state dinner last November, Tareq and Michaele Salahi might have plenty of reason to avoid the spotlight.
However, the D.C.-area duo appeared at a sold-out luncheon at the Georgetown Ritz-Carlton in Washington Wednesday, saying they were ready to move on from the crashing incident and begin the next chapter of their lives -- as stars of the "Real Housewives of D.C." premiering on Bravo on Aug. 5.
"We didn't do anything wrong. If the president and vice president are laughing, how serious can it be?" Michaele Salahi said, referring to comments by President Obama during the recent White House correspondents' dinner.
"Odds are that the Salahis are here," Obama joked.
"There haven't been people that were more unwelcome at a party since Charlie Crist," he said, referring to the Florida governor who bolted the Republican Party for his re-election bid.
The felony and misdemeanor charges the Salahis could face for crashing the White House event are no laughing matter and could lead to six months in prison. But they say the show -- which Michaele Salahi said she began "participating in" beginning in March 2009 -- will make it clear they did nothing wrong.
"If you watch the show, you will see the truth," Tareq Salahi said.
They added that they couldn't discuss the incident in detail until certain episodes of the show air, hinting that it was all part of the show.
"Because there were some things in the show, we can't discuss future episodes," Tareq Salahi said.
They discussed intimate details of their childhood, including that her given name, "Michaele," was a mixture of her parents' names Michael and Michelle. Her nickname growing up in Florida, she said, was "Missy," and then later, "Molly."
Michaele Salahi said she wanted to be a model when she was younger.
"I always knew I'd be involved with people in some degree," she said. "I didn't know how."
Tareq Salahi, who is Palestinian-American, detailed how he bottled wine for his industrious parents, who opened a vineyard and a Montessouri preschool in Virginia. He had aspirations to become a pilot before deciding to run the family business, studying wine-making at University of California-Davis.
The family vineyard, Oasis, now is defunct and at the center of bankruptcy proceedings. He said it is fully owned by him and the bankruptcy dispute will be cleared up soon.
"The family matter is not settled yet," he said. "The whole bankruptcy itself is in question, because my mother never had the authority to put it into bankruptcy, because I hold that power of attorney. So that's going to be dealt with in the bankruptcy courts at a certain time, which is coming."
He said his mother was now suing his father, who was suffering from declining health.
