By Joe Newby

Do forks present a national security threat to President Obama?

On Friday afternoon, the Secret Service confiscated forks and dinner knives at a luncheon for the National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO) before President Obama spoke.

About 1000 guests at the luncheon were told they needed to hand over their silverware for security reasons, Politico reported.

“It’s very important that you use your utensils as soon as possible,” NALEO board member Raquel Regalado said, hurrying the diners to finish their salads and pre-cut chicken breasts.

“As you know, we’re having another speaker and there is some Secret Service involved. So there’s a reason why there’s no knives at your table and the forks will be collected,” she added.
“And I’m not joking.”

According to Politico, the Secret Service required that all forks be rounded up before President Obama entered the room, and no dinner knives would be allowed.

Politico added:

“The Secret Service coordinates this process with staff and host committee to ensure tables are cleared of material that may be deemed hazardous prior to the arrival of the president,” Special Agent Max Milien told POLITICO. “Any implication that this was unique for this event is completely inaccurate.”

Politico noted that the President attends many events where diners have their silverware as he speaks, but Milien did not speak to that discrepancy.

“If we were talking about Mitt Romney, who spoke to the same group earlier in the week, the MSM headline probably would have been something along the lines of ‘Presumptive GOP nominee doesn’t trust Latino audience with forks,’” Doug Powers wrote at Michelle Malkin’s web site.

Warner Todd Huston wrote at Breitbart.com that New York Magazine’s Dan Amira “showed photos of the many times Obama has been in a room with “fork wielding strangers.”

“If a republican president had done the same thing, it would have been treated as prima facie evidence of racism,” he added, observing that the attendees were “elected officials and their staffs, not just the average Jose off the street.”

Politico tried to explain the discrepancy by saying that “there is plenty of silverware at large events like the White House Correspondents Dinner.”

“However,” Politico added, “those on the dais are well known to the White House and Obama does not plunge into the crowd there. After the speech Friday, Obama spent about six minutes shaking hands along a so-called ropeline in front of the crowd.”

The photos posted by Amira, however, show the President co-existing with silverware in what appears to be a fast food restaurant or a diner, not a large venue like the White House Correspondent’s Dinner.

Amira asked: “Why was it determined that Obama and forks can no longer coexist peacefully? Did the Secret Service pick up some intelligence on an unspecified fork threat to the president?”

“We have contacted them for answers, and we will report back to you as soon as possible,” he wrote.