SMH! John Kasich Eats Pizza With Fork During Stop In Queens

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Maybe it's in the politician's handbook?

Republican presidential candidate John Kasich is the latest politician to find himself in the center of a very New York scandal. The Ohio governor was caught destroying a delicious slice of pizza with a knife and fork Wednesday at Gino's Pizzeria and Restaurant in Howard Beach, Queens.

The Internet was not pleased.

Kasich defended himself on Thursday, telling "Good Morning America" he used the utensils because the pizza was "scalding hot."

As unthinkable as it sounds, Kasich is not the first to do it.

Fellow GOP candidate Donald Trump committed the pizza-eating faux pas during a dinner with Sarah Palin at Famiglia Pizzeria in Times Square in January 2011.

Trump later said he found the method "very comfortable."

"Plus, this way you can take the top of the pizza off so you're not just eating the crust," he added. I like to not eat the crust so we can keep the weight down at least as good as possible."

In January 2014, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio attacked three slices with silveware during a visit to Goodfellas Pizzeria on Staten Island. He switched to eating by hand when he got to his fourth slice.

At the time, de Blasio defended his pizza-eating technique, saying that's how pizza is eaten in Italy, his "ancestral homeland."

Following the mayor's "Pizzagate" scandal, the utensil was put in an evidence bag and sold at auction for $2,500. The proceeds went to the Stephen Siller Tunnel To Towers Foundation, named for an FDNY firefighter who ran through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

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• John Kasich
• Bill de Blasio
• Donald Trump