A man posing as a member of Congress got backstage near President Obama at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation last week, but that’s not the first time such a lapse took place.
After the 2011 State of the Union address, Secret Service agents let another man, Michigan Senate Majority leader Randy Richardville, approach Obama because they thought he was a member of Congress.
“Security officials mistook his Michigan lapel pin for the one that members of Congress wear,” Crain’s Detroit Business reports. “As he walked the halls of Congress alone, he said he saw a group of people with machine guns and military outfits and a man walking backward taking pictures. So Richardville figured the president might be walking right past him soon, so he decided to wait and see.”
He was right — so right, that he ended up walking and talking with Obama. “I said I kind of liked [his speech], so we started walking,” Richardville told CDB. “I said, ‘You wouldn’t mind signing my ticket, would you?’ I didn’t want any Republicans to see that, but he went ahead and autographed it. I put it back in my pocket and we just started talking about life walking down the halls of Congress right after the State of the Union.”