Finger lickin' Mick: Bloomberg's 'disgusting' campaign blunder

In the race to the 2020 US presidential election, social media is a powerful tool for candidates to show a more candid side to potential voters, but that backfired on Democratic presidential hopeful Mike Bloomberg when he released a snapchat video of him on the campaign trail digging into some pizza.

In the video which was captioned ‘when in doubt, rip the crust off’ the former New York City mayor is shown licking his fingers before using both hands to pull apart a slice of pizza from a communal box, he then aggressively licks his fingers again and reaches for another item on the table.

The video released on on Bloomberg’s official Snapchat account quickly went viral with many critiquing Bloomberg for his lack of hygiene and bad timing as the United States braces for a coronavirus epidemic.

“This is the man who is going to help fight the coronavirus? Watch him rip this pizza apart, put back the remains, lick his fingers, and then touch the box of coffee. Gross!” one Twitter user posted.

Current US President Donald Trump was quick to share the video, pinning it as the top of his official Twitter feed and describing the move as “Both unsanitary and dangerous to others and yourself.”

Donald Trump Jr tweeted that it was proof that Bloomberg “has never been around other people in a communal work space,” and slammed his publicity team for sharing the video.

“The fact that he and his “influencers” put this out thinking it normalises him is even scarier,” he wrote.

“Finger licking disgusting,” another social media user posted.

“It’s like watching a racoon dig through the trash,” another person responded.

“I won’t be inviting him to my pizza party,” one user commented.

“The shocking part of this video isn't Mike eating pizza like a rabid wolverine with coronavirus - it's that he posted this horror-show thinking that it makes him look ‘relatable’,” a user wrote.

Just days earlier Bloomberg had shared hygiene tips on his official Twitter feed to help prevent coronavirus spreading, including advising the public to “avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth”.

Bloomberg hasn’t publicly responded to the reaction to the video, but has continued to campaign the traditional way.

“In each of my elections, it's not the victory party I remember most, it's the people I've met along the way. The hands I shook, the stories I heard,” he tweeted hours after the video was released.

CBS News reported that nine people have died in the US due to coronavirus and as of Tuesday afternoon there were over 120 cases across 16 states.

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