clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

President Obama weighs in on the controversy over whether peas should go in guacamole

Andrew Prokop is a senior politics correspondent at Vox, covering the White House, elections, and political scandals and investigations. He’s worked at Vox since the site’s launch in 2014, and before that, he worked as a research assistant at the New Yorker’s Washington, DC, bureau.

President Obama decided to share his thoughts on what makes a proper guacamole on Twitter today. According to him, peas should not be included:

1) Why in the world is Obama tweeting about peas and guacamole?

The president was taking questions about health care and the Affordable Care Act in a Twitter Q&A session:

So naturally, Justin Green, the political editor of IJReview, asked the president about the afternoon's most pressing Twitter controversy — whether peas should be included in guacamole:

2) Why had pea guacamole become controversial on Twitter?

Earlier in the afternoon, the New York Times sent the following Tweet, with a link to a recipe:

The absurd suggestion — and the Times' assurance that we should "trust" it — had already led to many expressions of outrage, particularly on politics and journalism Twitter, before President Obama weighed in:

3) Hold on. Jimmy Fallon asked Jeb Bush about peas and guacamole weeks ago?

Indeed he did, as the above video, unearthed by BuzzFeed News, shows. "Have you ever tried peas in your guacamole?" Fallon asked. "We don't do peas in guacamole," Bush responded.

Fallon explained: "You put English peas in the guacamole and mix it up—" But Bush cut him off, shaking his head, "I'm afraid not. No, no." Fallon laughed and said, "Really, you really gotta try it!"

So apparently the guacamole-pea conspiracy goes deeper than we ever imagined. But luckily, our bipartisan political elites have united in support of common sense and good taste.

Sign up for the newsletter Sign up for Vox Recommends

Get curated picks of the best Vox journalism to read, watch, and listen to every week, from our editors.