Presidential hopeful Cory Booker is a really busy man. The campaign trail. Cable news. Actress Rosario Dawson is his girlfriend. He’s so busy that his staff had time to answer only one question from The Takeout, a foodie site.
Booker is vegan. So a question about actual food could have been a little out of his wheelhouse. (RELATED: Australian Bride Gets Pushy About Her Vegan Ways)
But since when does Booker shy away from answering anything?
“Is a hot dog a sandwich?” they asked.
Statistics are actually pretty clear on the subject — Ibotta issued a report indicating that 36 percent of all respondents believe that a hot dog is a sandwich. In early August, an op-ed piece that ran in the Washington Examiner declaring that the hot dog is indeed a sammie.
“Whatever one associates with the simple comfort food, one thing is certain: A hot dog is and should be considered a sandwich,” wrote Kathryn Paravano, a student at Georgetown. She called the debate over whether a hot dog is a sandwich a “tragic illustration of government manipulation.” Which may be taking this issue a bit far.
Booker’s handlers didn’t actually let the candidate talk to the site.
But they did issue a statement:
“Some may ask whether a vegan is qualified to pass judgment on this question. But it doesn’t take decades of meat-eating experience to know this truth: A hot dog is not a sandwich.”
Earlier this month, Gizmodo, a brother site to The Takeout, declared that journalists should stop asking Booker if all Americans should be vegan. Gizmodo puts Booker’s vegan transformation in 2014. Veg News reports that the birth of changed diet began back in 1992. Technically Gizmodo is right. Booker recalled that his last non-vegan meal was Election Day, 2014.
Booker and Rosario Dawson are in sync with their vegan diets. She eats mostly raw and vegan for her “peace of mind” and the energy.
Booker, too, ultimately realized that eating eggs didn’t “align with his spirit.”
It’s safe to say hot dogs, sandwich or not, are a big no-no.