Schumer Concedes Cheesecake Spending

Faced with a report of major spending at a Brooklyn business, Sen. Chuck Schumer didn't blink. The New Yorker admitted guilt, with an explanation. "I love Junior's Cheesecake so much," he told reporters Sunday. Then he passed mini-cheesecakes around the gathering, the Washington Post reports. Filings with the Federal Election Commission show that Schumer's campaign spent more than $8,600 on cheesecakes from 2012 to 2016 for supporters, per the New York Post—about 200 cheesecakes over five years. "I give them as gifts. I use them for bets," Schumer said, as he did once when the New York Giants were playing the Green Bay Packers. None of the cheesecake was bought with government money, per CNN.

Calling the cheesecake his "guilty pleasure," Schumer said he's been going to Junior's since he was a child. "It's the best cheesecake in the world," the Democrat said. He likes the flavored cheesecakes but recommends plain, the better to appreciate Junior's recipe. Schumer's patronage was "totally news to me," said Alan Rosen, whose family founded Junior's in 1950. "But I am appreciative." (More cheesecake stories.)