Rapper Jay-Z’s apparent visit to the White House Situation Room Wednesday reveals a radical departure from the last eight years of security policy, according to a senior Bush administration official.According to photos, Jay-Z, along with Trey Songz, his wife Beyonce, her mom, Kevin Liles and more, visited the White House Wednesday before a concert in Washington, D.C. During the visit, Jay-Z and company were apparently allowed access to the Situation Room. Photos from the visit feature Jay-Z sitting at the head of the table in the Situation Room under the president’s seal...
Historically, the Situation Room requires a high level of clearance due to the presence of sensitive information.
“I believe the only exceptions had to be okay’d by either the chief of staff, national security adviser or the deputy chief of staff,”the Bush official wrote in an e-mail.
The Bush official, who was present for a remodeling of the Situation Room in 2006, added,
“We made very few exceptions to the rule, usually a visiting foreign dignitary attending a meeting there or someone without a clearance who needed to be briefed in that facility for some reason."
According to Jay-Z, who casually told the crowd at a Wednesday night concert at the Verizon Center,
"I just came from the White House."The White House confirmed that Jay-Z did visit the White House Wednesday for a quick, unscheduled visit with the president. A white House aide told CNN that special visitors occasionally visit the Situation Room.
"It's not like there's classified information laying around,"the aide said.
"It's really just a conference room."
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