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It was the New York Democratic premiere of an October surprise: Gubernatorial challenger Cynthia Nixon revealed that she was going to be a hit, a capers and red onion on cinnamon grape bagels.
The news was broken by the recently revived digital outlet Gothamist, which captured Nixon's order on camera during a Sunday appearance at Zabar's, the legendary deli on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The five-minute video shows Nixon contemplating an array of possible bagel options before settling on cinnamon grapes. Meanwhile, the packaged shopper, unaware of the unfolding scandal in their midst.
Behind the smoked seafood counter, a man in a white chef's jacket at Nixon through his glasses. "Now, I have tomato and I have onion and I have capers," he says, with some uncertainty.
"That's what I want," Nixon assures him.
"A full load?" he asks.
"A full load," she confirmed. "And cream cheese."
Gothamist published on Monday afternoon, Nixon found by Grand Central Terminal. Shoving microphones in her face, they asked to know: Why was she putting smoked fish on a cereal-flavored bagel?
Nixon doubled down.
"That's my go-to brunch, breakfast, whether I'm out or I'm home," she said. "I mean, it's not uncooked oatmeal.But it's pretty delicious.And I say, do not yuck my yum.Do not knock it until you've tried it."
WHY CYNTHIA, WHY? I was with you until this very moment! (Do not worry, I'm still voting for you). #BAGELGATE https://t.co/i81FRsPaJf
– Kelly Folkers (@kellyfolkers) September 10, 2018
Reasonable minds can disagree. The rapidly unfolding controversy resulted in a slump of enterprising young reporters heading to their neighborhood and asking for cinnamon grape bagel with lox, capers, red onions, tomatoes, and cream cheese. Gothamist's staff deemed the combination "disgusting" and "pungent." At Jezebel, writers found it "weird" and "unpleasant."
Soon, condemnation was pouring in from the distant provinces of Philadelphia and Washington, DC, where the bagels are subpar and Nixon's critics could not vote for it if they wanted to. In a stern edict that reached the Hudson River, NJ.com's Jeremy Schneider declared that Nixon had "committed an unforgivable crime against the bagel gods."
Meanwhile, George Conway, the respected conservative lawyer who is also the husband of White House advisor Kellyanne Conway, offered an attempt "Lox her up?"
I'm undecided in the NY #Bagelgate may determine my vote.
– Phil Klinkner (@pklinkne) September 11, 2018
As references to #BagelgateTwitter, Nixon's campaign adviser, Rebecca Katz, jumped to the candidate's defense.
"Cynthia Nixon is going to be running to represent those forgotten," she said, "even if those opinions are out of the mainstream or even unpopular," she wrote.
The online cycle of reactions, and reactions to the reactions, followed by predictable pattern. First was the semi-ironic performative outrage from people appalled by Nixon's unconventional taste in bagel toppings.
@Gothamist in the interest of full disclosure, I'm running for Queens County Democratic Committee and thought you should know my bagel order is … onion bagel, cream cheese, Jersey
, salt and pepper. #BAGELGATE pic.twitter.com/yev7aJwtva – Heather Dimitriadis (@HeatherEBD) September 11, 2018
Next came the contrarian takes from people arguing that Nixon's bagel order was fine, actually.
Then, the inevitable backlash that the fact that the debate was even happening, and questioned whether the vote on Nixon's eating clothes was rooted in sexism.
Finally, all things inevitably do, it ended with a fundraising appeal. Please take a moment to think of the plight of the staffer with cinnamon-raisin-and-lox sandwiches, as New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo continues to outrage and outspend the upstart challenger's campaign.
By late Monday night, Cuomo, dont bagel preferences are unknown.
In the conservative media, Nixon's breakfast was widely reviled. "Cynthia Nixon's bagel is horrifying," read a headline in the New York Post, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. The Daily Caller went to step further, declaring, "Cynthia Nixon has the most repellent bagel order of all time." Conservative commentator Evan Siegfried, perhaps alluding to Nixon's celebrity status and significant personal wealth, wrote on Twitter, "Another way in which Nixon is out of touch."
YES! W O R Cynthia Nixon @CynthiaNixon Love Cinnamon Grape Bagel with Lox and Cream Cheese, mixing the sweet and the sour is wonderful! GO WOMAN! #CynthiaNixon #BAGELGATE #running #Primary #PrimaryRocks #RockTheVote
– Deborah Marquit (@deborah_marquit) September 11, 2018
Left-leaning outlets were more charitable. Slate jokingly offered six possible explanations, ranging from "This was a stress order" to "Nixon is subtly positioning herself as a maverick who supports women's choices." New York MagazineNixon's campaign, which has been favored by Nixon's campaign, has been called "troubling," but it has been called "troubling," but it is intended to be used by the public.
As writer Chris Crowley pointed out, Nixon now belongs to a long line of politicians whose attempts to eat eminently normal foods are somehow end up making them look like a relatable human being. In previous election cycles, Ohio Gov. John Kasich was mocked for eating pizza with a fork and knife, as was New York Mayor Bill of Blasio, who claimed to have picked up the habit in his "ancestral homeland" of Italy.
Are these micro-controversies a distraction from the real issues of a campaign? Probably. But there's an argument to be made that anybody who shows them they really "get" an area of regional foods that they understand the community's distinct cultural identity.
"Knowing your base is important," wrote NJ.com's Schneider. "And in New York, that means knowing your bagels."
Look, no one, no matter how horrible their taste, we would have a cinnamon-raisin bagel. The fact that Nixon did that KNOWS what Jews put on bagels. She just did not know what KIND of bagels we'd choose. She's trying, at least! #BAGELGATE
– David Silverstone, Very Stable Genius (@dwsNY) September 10, 2018
Hot take on #BagelGate : No one orders that accident by accident, she WANTED that bagel. She's committed this atrocity before. Still gonna vote for her.
– Dave * Secret House White Resistance Hero * Bledsoe (@TheHell_Podcast) September 10, 2018
I thought the @andrewcuomo anti-Semitic fliers were the most disgusting moment of the campaign until I saw this! #CynthiaForNY #AndrewCuomo #GovernorRace #PRIMARYDAY @ZabarsIsNY #loxgate #BAGELGATE https://t.co/11KEpQEZPO
– Noam Laden (@NoamLaden) September 11, 2018
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