- In American politics,
what you eat,
- You want some?
- and how you eat it,
is a big deal.
- Candidates are out in force
on the campaign trail
eating and eating and eating.
- So big, that one little mistake
could possibly sink
your entire presidential campaign.
Well, supposedly.
- It was that gaffe with the tamale
that cost him the state of Texas.
Carter won Texas,
and Carter won the presidency.
And it may have been a tamale that did it.
Hey, I'm Yara.
Ding.
Let me explain.
American politicians spend a lot of time eating food
and talking about food
on camera.
Mmm.
They've been doing it for years.
I do not like broccoli.
And believe me,
they eat and drink all the things.
It's a little slice of heaven.
All the things.
I always used to eat Milk Bones as a kid.
Come here.
But the stakes are high.
One wrong move,
one food gaffe,
and suddenly you're at the center of a storm
that could possibly hurt your entire campaign.
The New York Times, today,
has reported Senator Amy Klobuchar
eating a salad with a hair comb.
- With a comb. - With a comb.
[slo-mo] Hair comb.
So if public eating is so high-risk,
why do so many politicians eat in front of the camera?
And why do we care so much what they put in their mouths?
I took my questions to George Washington University,
where I met with Lara Brown,
a political scientist who's done
some serious research on political campaigns.
We are seated before a very historic table.
It was once owned by Abraham Lincoln.
- Oh my God. And now it's in your office.
- In my office. - It's in your office,
of all the other offices.
- That's amazing. - Well.
Ahem, right, uh, the questions.
It seems like campaigns make a point of showing
their prime presidential contender -
- Absolutely.
eating food on camera -
- Whoo hoo! - Oh my goodness.
talking about food.
I love street food,
and I think I developed that living in the Third World.
What you're trying to do is relate
to the many different communities
that exist within this country.
So, masala dosa.
- The flavor is very nice. - Thank you.
Food is the way that people connect with each other.
Candidates are trying to say,
I'm in your community.
I get you.
And I enjoy your traditions with you.
What flavor ice cream you eating there?
It was Americone Dream.
It was.
And it seems like there's this focus on
Particularly in the last 40 years,
after Vietnam and after Watergate,
presidents
kind of went out the window,
in favor of these
outsiders and people who could
claim that they were not
part of the Washington experience.
Then, really what started to matter was
Crafting that non-elite, average-Joe or average-Jane image
is a pretty well coordinated effort these days.
I'm Ted Cruz -
I'm Ted Cruz,
and I approve this message.
- It's led by a group of
known simply as the
Advance team.
Advance teams are masters at planning events
and staging
They'll scout out where a candidate will go.
You guys want some?
What they'll do.
Mom, what do you want? Chili dog?
And, of course, what they'll eat.
- How's that sandwich, eh? You get that in Ohio?
- And they'll make sure journalists
are invited.
But there's one food event
they'll make sure their candidate absolutely attends -
And it starts right here in Iowa.
the Iowa State Fair.
- The reason why the Iowa State Fair is so important
is because it's in Iowa.
Iowa is the first state
to actually go to the polls
and do any sort of voting.
- All eyes on Iowa.
The first in the nation caucus.
In the Iowa Caucus.
And how you do in the Iowa Caucuses
could eventually give you the momentum
to become your party's nominee.
Because of that,
candidates needed a place
where they could meet and mingle
with other Iowans,
and the State Fair was just the perfect place for it.
And I'm psyched for the eats, even as a vegan.
- There is no more specialty dish at the State Fair
than whatever it is on a stick.
Because if you put it on a stick,
you can walk around the fair
and eat at the same time.
It's often fried foods, right?
They'll fry Snickers bars,
Oreos.
They fry butter,
and then put it on a stick.
And corn dogs,
lots and lots of corn dogs.
So, to be seen with a fried object,
in your hand at that fair,
is a really big deal. - Yes, it is.
All of those moments are about
trying to say, I'm just like you.
And we're all
But what happens when you eat something the wrong way,
and that carefully crafted average-Joe image
comes crashing down?
I'm talking about
Turns out, there's someone who wrote
her entire Ph.D. dissertation about the role of food
and food gaffes in American elections.
One of her arguments is that -
Food is so symbolically rich.
It's this, like, really easy device that you can use
to craft this, like, public sensibility about who you are.
Basically, what you eat can be used
by the media or political elites
to show how relatable and middle class you are -
or how elite and unrelatable you are.
Billionaires in wine caves
should not pick the next president.
Gucci wearin', latte drinking -
Latte sipping -
Does what you eat have an impact at the polls?
I mean, in the everyday grind
of running for president,
you go to the Iowa State Fair,
you host a ton of events in diners.
If you're doing it right,
you only hear about it in, like, that place
and in that moment in time.
This is all food for thought.
I'm not gonna hear about it.
You're not gonna hear about it.
The folks who live there will, but it's not a story.
But it sort of fizzles out.
When it doesn't fizzle out, however,
is when something goes wrong.
Ah, with like food gaffes
and blunders. - Food gaffes and blunders,
and the candidate does something to suggest that
he or she is really just sort of like
As you know, hot dog is my favorite meat.
[slo-mo] Hot dog is my favorite meat.
If it maps onto an existing
media narrative of that candidate,
it becomes this weirdly sticky story.
Who let the dogs out?
Who, who?
But what are some of the most
disastrous examples of food gaffes?
I figured I'd run through a few with my interlocutors.
We're gonna play a special game,
where I show you pictures of American politicians
committing food gaffes.
Yep.
And I want you to guess what they are
and explain exactly what happened.
Ready to go?
Oh boy.
Let's do it.
Boom.
Voila.
Oh!
Oh yeah, I mean obviously.
This is a very, very famous moment.
This is President Gerald Ford
campaigning in south Texas -
... and something isn't going right.
He attempted to eat a tamale with the cornhusk on.
- Every newscast in Texas,
all they did was show Gerald Ford
not knowing how to eat a tamale.
And this was, like, in 1976,
when he was running against
Mike Huckabee famously said that
this sunk his presidential effort.
- Carter won the presidency,
and it may have been a tamale that did it.
I mean, no, one little thing didn't.
But it was really sort of about
his broader inability to connect with people.
Ha!
Boom.
Oh!
This is close to my heart
because I'm from Philadelphia.
So this is John Kerry,
running for president,
makes his stop in Philadelphia,
and he orders his Philly cheesesteak
with Swiss cheese.
The traditional way that you order
cheesesteaks in Philadelphia is with Whiz,
which is like an orange cheese product.
And this caused an outrage?
Yes. Because it seemed to fit
with all of the cliches about John Kerry,
that he was something of an elitist.
You also don't put lettuce and tomatoes on it.
Despite this incident, though,
Kerry went on to win Pennsylvania by about two points.
This.
- John Kasich, on the campaign trail,
eating pizza with a fork and knife.
- at Gino's Pizzeria in Queens.
Boy is this good.
It is a food that, 99% of the time,
you eat with your hands.
I think Bill de Blasio has done that.
- Sarah Palin.
- Donald Trump.
If you're going to use food to connect with voters,
you need to connect with them in the way they eat it.
This is Hillary Clinton running for president in 2016. She's on
What's something that you always carry with you?
Hot sauce.
- Really? Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, by all accounts,
this is a woman who loves hot sauce,
and who actually does carry hot sauce around
in her bag.
I eat a lot of hot peppers.
I, for some reason,
started doing that in 1992.
But it felt so pandering, in the moment,
because she's on "The Breakfast Club."
Listen, I want you to know,
people are gonna see this and say,
"OK, she's panderin' to Black people."
OK.
Is it workin'?
And because, like, "Formation" had just come out -
I got hot sauce in my bag, swag.
And what's interesting about these gaffes
is that, for the people who already have,
like, this vulnerability around their authenticity,
the gaffes
- As millennials, your voice is important.
I, Hillary Clinton,
share all of your exact, same beliefs,
and I always have.
So yeah, as you can see,
eating in public can be fraught.
But that begs the question,
is any form of on-camera eating
If you're eating in Iowa,
aren't you pandering to the state's rural, white population?
If you eat at Sylvia's Restaurant in Harlem, NY,
are you pandering to the Black community?
And if you're ...
Let's not go there.
- This country is large and contains multitudes.
And you're having to appeal to folks all over,
whose lives and food ways and food cultures
are so different and idiosyncratic and distinct.
It's part of campaigning.
I mean it's part of just trying to reach out
and make a connection with folks.
But again, where I really think it flips a switch for people,
is where it just feels more deeply dishonest
than, like, an earnest effort to make a connection.
I'm learning to say, "y'all" and
I got started right this morning
with a biscuit and some
For candidates who want to run for office
in the United States,
what tips would you have?
I would say,
because food is such a core way that we connect as humans.
But there's a second, more important tip.
Avoid those situations where what you're doing
is so clearly not a reflection of who you are.
Hot dog is my favorite meat.
Just be yourself.
If you're gonna make mistakes,
have them be mistakes that are kind of authentic to you.
There are folks who do something wrong
that's kind of benign wrong,
which is, you know, a John Kerry ordering Swiss cheese.
Like, the guy just likes Swiss cheese!
Yeah.
Now let's sort of, like, juxtapose that
to the de Blasio situation.
She's talking about the mayor of New York City.
- Mayor de Blasio tweeted his favorite bagels
are from Bagel Hole in Park Slope,
where his order is whole-wheat, toasted, extra cream cheese.
The only problem ...
Oh, we don't toast our bagels.
- Bagel Hole doesn't even have a toaster.
And so here, in this moment,
it's like such a stupid lie.
But it reveals that he uses food
to try to create a sense of who he is.
But if he's sort of willing to lie
in the service of accomplishing that,
you start to create a sense of
uncertainty around your authenticity,
as someone who is willing to lie
for the purpose of getting votes.
I guess a lot of this comes down to the age-old saying,
"Honesty is the best policy."
Yeah.
But, I mean, if you're getting a cheesesteak in Philly,
get it with Cheez Whiz.
It tastes way better.
No tomatoes. No lettuce.
Maybe mushrooms.
Oh, grilled onions. Yes.