Beck baselessly suggests “White House or Congress” plotted to “bury” pre-scheduled Salahi testimony on “busy news day”

Written by Brooke Obie

Published

Glenn Beck questioned why the “White House or Congress” would schedule the testimony of the “gate-crashers” Michaele and Tareq Salahi for January 20, baselessly suggesting that they “had the story planted today ... to bury it in a busy news day while everyone else was distracted,” presumably by Republican Scott Brown's victory in the Massachusetts Senate election. But the House Homeland Security Committee ordered the Salahis to appear at the January 20 committee hearing in early December.

From the January 20 edition of Fox News' Glenn Beck:

BECK: By the way, in a related story, why did the White House have the hearing today on the gate-crashers? Remember the gate-crashers? They pleaded the Fifth. Do you think the White House or Congress had that story planted today, to have had those hearings today, to bury it in a busy news day while everyone else was distracted? Please pray for our Secret Service, make sure that they do their job.

But Salahi testimony was scheduled in early December

NY Times reported December 9: "[D]on't expect any fireworks on Jan. 20, the day the House Homeland Security Committee ordered the Salahis to appear on Capitol Hill." From a December 9 item on the New York Times blog The Caucus:

The Congressional committee that oversees the Secret Service voted on Wednesday to subpoena the now infamous gate-crashing couple who dodged White House security to attend President Obama's first state dinner.

The vote was 26 to 3 in favor of issuing a subpoena to Tareq Salahi and 27 to 2 for his wife, Michaele. Representative Mike Rogers, a Republican of Alabama, switched votes for Ms. Salahi.

But don't expect any fireworks on Jan. 20, the day the House Homeland Security Committee ordered the Salahis to appear on Capitol Hill. On Tuesday, the couple's lawyer said they would invoke their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. [links removed, emphasis added]