Ariana Grande was blocked from performing at the White House after a vetting process flagged her bizarre antics in a doughnut store, in which she licked the sweet treats and said she hated America.
The 23-year-old singer caused controversy in July 2015 when she was caught on camera using her tongue to touch a number of the bakery items on display in a store, and also said she hated America. It has now emerged the incident cost her the chance to perform in front of President Barack Obama at a gala late last year. Leaked emails published on Wikileaks showed a request was made for her suitability to be vetted, and while she was shown to have a clean criminal and financial record, her bizarre behavior in the store was flagged to senior staff officials.
An email sent to a number of staff members on Sept. 10, 2015, read: “Ariana Butera — video caught her licking other people’s doughnuts while saying she hates America; Republican Congressman used this video and said it was a double standard that liberals were not upset with her like they are with Trump who criticized Mexicans; cursed out a person on Twitter after that person used an offensive word toward her brother.”
The email also highlighted the fact she’d avoided criminal charges over the incident, but mentioned Grande had made “two long YouTube apologies.” It added: “In the second of her two YouTube apologies posted last week, the 22-year-old singer said she was ‘disgusted’ with herself and wanted to ‘disappear’ after TMZ posted the video.” She said: “First of all, my behavior was very offensive and I apologized. There’s no excuse, or there’s nothing to justify it. I think as human beings, we all say and do things that we don’t mean at all sometimes. That’s how we grow and I’ve learned what it feels like to disappoint so many people who love and believe in you, and that’s an excruciating feeling.”
After reviewing the report and proposed performance, White House employee Bobby Schmuck simply replied, “Nope, sorry.”
Joe Marin — who owns Wolfee Donuts in California — previously alleged that Grande was “rude” to his staff and licked two doughnuts before spitting on others. “She was looking around, and that’s when I saw she was licking two of the doughnuts. Then she went to another tray that was on top and there was a tray of powdered doughnuts. So I zoomed [the camera] into her mouth, and the powdered ones, she did not lick them, she spit on those. She spit on one of them, and she dared that guy she was seeing [dancer Ricky Alvarez) and he spit on it, too. I saw they were getting a kick out of it,” he said.
