Sen. Jeff Flake topples Sen. Cory Booker in playful snowball fight
Mar 22, 2018, 1:14 PM | Updated: 1:15 pm
(Twitter/@MonicaChon)
PHOENIX — Sens. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) partook in an old fashioned snowball fight, taking advantage of recent snow Thursday in Washington, D.C.
Photographs of the senators showed the two standing back-to-back pacing away from each other in traditional duel form.
Booker would eventually concede defeat to Flake in a tweet early in the morning on Thursday.
With great ignominy I have to announce I lost the snowball fight 3 to 2.
I’m buying the pizza for his office . . . . I neglected to tell him though that I am definitely sending a vegan pizza or two. pic.twitter.com/iW3I19kmdt
— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) March 22, 2018
No congressmen were harmed in this playful display of partisanship or bipartisanship.
“With so many fights on Capitol Hill, @CoryBooker and I are going literal: Snowball duel. East lawn Capitol Hill. In 5 minutes Loser buys other staff pizza.”
— Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) March 22, 2018
Senators @CoryBooker and @JeffFlake starting their day with a snowball duel. pic.twitter.com/bVoJQietRR
— Matt Klapper (@mattklapper) March 22, 2018
Booker got taken down but used his lower leverage to return fire. Appeared to be a draw. “Ain’t gonna be no rematch,” one said.
“Don’t want one,” the other replied. pic.twitter.com/PjBxA08BaX— Paul Kane (@pkcapitol) March 22, 2018
I should have known this was a setup… lost this morning’s snowball duel to a guy named Flake from Snowflake, Arizona! pic.twitter.com/A0TVajte4R
— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) March 22, 2018
There have been legendary duels involving elected officials throughout the history of the United States that have been much more serious — and deadly. In the 1700s and 1800s, duels were viewed as an acceptable and feasible way to resolve political problems.
The seventh president of the United States, Andrew Jackson, participated in many duels throughout his lifetime. In an 1806 duel, Jackson, who began serving the Tennessee Supreme Court in 1802, fatally wounded famous author Charles Dickinson.
Alexander Hamilton was shot and killed by Aaron Burr in a 1804 duel while the latter was serving under President Thomas Jefferson. The duel was well documented in the award-winning musical “Hamilton,” written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, which premiered in 2015.