WASHINGTON - The Secret Service, whose agents are trained to protect the president, attempted to do the same Thursday for President Obama's social aides by insisting that the agency was solely responsible for the security lapse that allowed two party crashers to talk their way into last week's White House state dinner.
"This is our fault and our fault alone," Mark Sullivan, Secret Service director, told the House Homeland Security Committee.
But lawmakers from both parties - contending that this was not a harmless security lapse but rather a threat to national security - told Sullivan that at least part of the blame rested with the White House social staff, which was in charge of invitations for the gala.
Secret Service agents and White House aides typically monitor entrances for guests, such as those attending last week's dinner in honor of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
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However, there were no social aides present when Secret Service personnel allowed Tareq and Michaele Salahi to enter the White House after they insisted they had been invited to the dinner.
"Every single time that I have entered the White House, there has always been somebody from the White House there at the very first point," said Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif.
Sullivan said that he did not know who made the recommendation to have only the Secret Service at the checkpoints. The security plan in effect that night required the White House staff to be available by phone to clear any discrepancies on the list, he said.
"We should have called for someone to come out," Sullivan acknowledged.
Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, said the Salahis would not have been admitted if White House's social staffers, overseen by Obama's social secretary Desiree Rogers, had been stationed at the entrances with the Secret Service.
The agents who mistakenly permitted the Salahis to enter have been placed on administrative leave, Sullivan said.
Separately, Obama said in an interview with USA Today and the Detroit Free Press that "the system didn't work the way it was supposed to" at the state dinner. Nonetheless, he said he still feels safe in the White House and "could not have more confidence in the Secret Service."
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the committee, had invited the Salahis and Rogers to testify. However, the Salahis didn't show up and the White House invoked the Constitution's separation-of-powers doctrine to explain that Rogers wouldn't appear before the panel.
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., criticized the White House for "offhandedly" announcing during a White House briefing Wednesday that Rogers would be a no-show, instead of notifying Congress directly.
King accused the White House of "stonewalling" to try to save Rogers, an Obama ally from Chicago, and itself from embarrassment.
Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, posed the basic question underlying the investigation: "How in the world could this couple get past the Secret Service without having their names on the list and get right up to the president of the United States?"
Sullivan replied: "Sir, I've asked myself that question a thousand times over the last week."
Rep. Christopher Carney, D-Pa., called the Salahis "pathologically egomaniacal."
Some lawmakers also speculated about why the Salahis did not appear at the hearing.
"Perhaps it's because they were on the invited-guest list," joked Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Ariz.
