So many people have been asking me how I snuck into the Democratic Debate on Sunday in Charleston, I figured I owe everyone a story.

First off I was in Charleston for my older sister’s wedding on Saturday. I had arrived on Wednesday and decided to try my luck and sneak into the Republican Debate in North Charleston on Thursday. I was successful so come Sunday I had a bit of an understanding of what sorts of things would be useful to say and do. I arrived at the Gaillard Center in Downtown Charleston at about 4:15 P.M. and proceeded to walk directly up to the entrance. I had chosen to wear my great grand uncle Oscar Moncrief Stanley’s handmade silk jacket that he had commissioned in China in the 1960’s to the event. Once I got to the entrance, I saw that people had tickets and were waiting in line to be admitted to the Debate, the doors were scheduled to open at 5:30. I walked towards a rather plump woman standing with several lanyards and asked her what the situation was with getting into the debate. She told me that the doors were opening at 5:30 and asked me to see my ticket. I replied “I don’t have a ticket, I was told to check in first and would receive one at the gate”. She asked me who I was here with and I said that I was representing B’nai Brith International and the World Jewish Congress, the later of the two I am not certain is a real organization. She said that she did not know who I was supposed to check in with and told me to wait for the security to come clear things up. As she was speaking to me a woman who was working for the DNC (Democratic National Convention) walked past and said “No, no, no he is one of my staff working for the debate” and proceeded to hand me a lanyard that said partner on it. She then asked me to stand by the stairs next to the parking garage and tell people as they came from their cars, to show me their tickets and tell them where to go. Yellow and red tickets would go to the end of the regular admittance line and blue tickets would enter from the back as VIP’s. While doing this I met a few other staffers who were doing similar tasks. One particular staffer asked if I was Martin O’Malley’s son and I said yes. He went and told some of the other staff that I was the former Governor’s son and I gained recognition based on my jacket. After about an hour of standing in the cold a woman with a VIP ticket asked me where she was supposed to go, so I escorted her to the back entrance. As we approached the back entrance there was a line of about 50 people I would guess waiting outside to get their I.D.s verified by a single secret service agent before they could enter. I walked up to him and told him I was staff and showed him my pass. He thanked me and said that he had been needing some help. We then proceeded to check the I.D.s of the congressmen and celebrities entering the back against the names printed on their ticket. This is when I met James Earl Jones (the voice of Darth Vader and Mufasa) and I asked him to take a picture. Once we had admitted and cleared everyone for entrance we got the okay to enter the building. I followed the staff and secret service through a metal detector, past security and into the venue and walked up to the staffers room. In the room there was cold pizza and soda to eat and drink. I ate two slices of cold cheese pizza and drank a coke because I was starving. I made some small talk with the other DNC volunteers and found out that we were expected to watch the debate from inside that small room on a projector. That would not do for me. So I walked down to the media spin room and was stopped by security. I showed them the side of my pass that said Partner, and told them that I was there writing a piece on behalf of the World Jewish Congress in order to determine which candidate the organization should back. They immediately let me enter and complimented me on my jacket. Once inside the media room I ate some of the excellent food provided for the reporters and press. I met people from BBC, NBC, Google, and many other news organizations and chatted. When people would ask me who I was with or what I was doing I would give them the same answer, that I was writing the article to determine who to endorse. After I was satisfied with the good food and was recognized by the media security so that I would be able to enter the room after the debate I proceeded to the debate entrance. I had no intention of watching the debate any way other than live face to face with the candidates. When I was stopped at the doors to the debate room they asked me for my ticket. I showed them my pass and told them that I was the aid of the Rabbi of the Emanuel Synagogue who was giving an opening address to the debate and needed to have a word with him. I knew that this Rabbi would be in attendance because he came through the back entrance when I was manning security. They let me in and I proceeded to walk all the way down to the front of the debate hall and stood with the ushers. I told them that I was selected to be a “seat fill” (at debates when people are absent they bring in staff to have them fill in so the debate appears to be completely full). They were pleased with this answer and I waited for all people to enter the hall and the openers to begin speaking. I spotted a seat in the first row to the left that was vacant and asked the ushers about the seat. They told me that that seat had been reserved for Bill Clinton but he would not be in attendance and was staying at the hotel until after the debate. They allowed me to go forward and sit in his seat. To my left seated was a secret service agent and to my right was the head of the employee labor union. I remained in the seat as the debate began and made conversation with the agent next to me and the affluent people sitting near me. During the commercial breaks many of the candidates would walk to the edge of the stage to speak to their families. At one break Bernie Sanders came to the edge to speak to his wife who gave him a cough drop because she said his voice sounded hoarse. It was at this point that I met her and conversed with her. I introduced myself and told her that I admired her husband. I also shook hands with the Senator and returned to my seat since the debate was about to begin again. At the next commercial break I met Martin O’Malley and shook hands with him, I told him that I looked forward to speaking to him further in the press room after the debate. I thoroughly enjoyed the debate and took many pictures and snaps throughout the night. Once the debate was over people started to exit from the back and the immediate family of the candidates began to enter onto the stage. At this point I said to myself fuck it I was going to get on stage with the candidates. So I followed the families of the candidates through the side exit to backstage and past many secret service agents none of which stopped me. Then I was onstage. I asked the wife of the labor unionist to take some pictures of me on my phone and I went up to Martin O’Malley and congratulated him on his debate performance. I took back my phone and shook hands with Bernie Sanders and said similar things to him. I then continued to Hillary Clinton and introduced myself. I told her that she debated very well and that I wished her the best of luck and shook her hand. She said that it was a pleasure meeting me and commented that she thought I was dressed very sharp. It was at this point that the debate came back from commercial and there I was front and center on national television shaking hands with Hillary. Immediately my phone started to vibrate as the messages and calls started to flood in, I ignored them all and continued on to shake hands with the debate moderators and all of the important people on stage. Once people were starting to exit the stage I followed them and went to the spin room. Remembering my jacket the security let me back in. In the spin room, people would follow the important people with massive signs that let the reporters know where they could find everyone they needed to interview and talk to. That is how I found Killer Mike. I am not the biggest fan of rap music in general but I enjoy his music. I walked up to his aid as everyone were pushing and shoving and crowding trying to speak to all of the people. I told her that I needed to speak to him on behalf of the world jewish people. She then got his attention and I said to him “Killer Mike what do you want to tell the Jewish people around the world?” He looked directly at the camera on my phone pointed to the lense and said “Shalom!”. After that I cycled through the room shaking hands with people and walking behind people recording for the news. I proceeded to Martin O’Malley and said hello once again. I took down the email of several reporters and the campaigns chief managers. Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton were not in the spin room and once Martin O’Malley was leaving I went up to the guy who had been holding his sign around the room. I was surprised to see that it was one of the staffers who had been in the pizza room. I asked him if I could hold the sign and he said sure why not. I then went up to the people from google and told them to watch the sign for me for a few minutes while I said goodbye to all of the heads of the news companies and reporters. I said my farewells to all that I met and retrieved my sign. Then I walked out of the debate and back to my hotel with his press sign. It was then that I found out people were tweeting about me and I was on tv. Someone sent me a link to a reddit post about me and I shared it with my friends. This is undoubtedly one of the craziest things I have ever been able to pull. Looking back I still get hype that I made it into one of the most secure events in the nation, past secret service, onto tv, and into the press room without getting stopped and ejected. If there is one thing this experience has taught me it is if you act like you are supposed to be somewhere people will believe you…

Louis Shenker, 17 Longmeadow Massachusetts