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party crashers:

'We were invited

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Tue Dec 1, 12:01 pm ET

Tareq and Michaele Salahi, the now-infamous "White House party crashers," appeared on the "Today Show" this morning to deny claims they attended a state dinner at the White House uninvited.

Talking to Matt Lauer, the Salahis said they were "shocked" and "devastated" to wake up last Thursday morning and discover they had been labeled "party crashers" by the media. "Our lives have been destroyed, everything we've worked for," Michaele Salahi said. "For me, 44 years just destroyed."

That, despite the fact, as Jon Stewart pointed out last night on "The Daily Show," the media's critical coverage of the couple has actually given them exactly what they seem to have sought: fame. In fact, Lauer began the interview by asking the Salahis to state for the record, contrary to their rumored plans, that they were not being paid to give the interview.

So how did the Salahis get into the party? Michaele Salahi insists that she and her husband would never dare to sneak into a private affair at the White House.

"We were invited, not crashers," she said. "There isn't anyone that would have the audacity or the poor behavior to do that. The White House, is the most, it is the House, and no one would do that, and certainly not us."

When pressed by Lauer to reveal who invited them, Tareq Salahi said he and his wife were "cooperating extensively" with the Secret Service's investigation into the matter but could not say more, adding, "The truth will come out." The Washington Post reports that Michele Jones, a special assistant to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, communicated with the Salahis about an invitation to last week's state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. But Jones issued a statement denying she had implied that the Salahis would be on the guest list. "I specifically stated that they did not have tickets, and in fact that I did not have the authority to authorize attendance, admittance, or access to any part of the evening's activities," Jones said. "Even though I informed them of this, they still decided to come."

Watch the interview below: