Amy Klobuchar apparently ate salad with a comb and then made her staffer clean it

The New York Times published a story Friday detailing the harsh, occasionally demeaning manner in which 2020 presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar has treated her staff. There are a lot of disturbing details in the report, including accounts of Klobuchar throwing items "in the direction of aides" and making employees wash her dishes, which is probably unethical and definitely shitty.

The weirdest story, though, is about a comb. In 2008, an aide allegedly forgot to bring a fork for Klobuchar's salad aboard a short flight to South Carolina. According to the Times, Klobuchar "berated" the staffer for his mistake, then proceeded to eat the salad with a comb.

Yes, a comb. For hair!

From the Times:

What happened next was typical: Ms. Klobuchar berated her aide instantly for the slip-up. What happened after that was not: She pulled a comb from her bag and began eating the salad with it, according to four people familiar with the episode.

Then she handed the comb to her staff member with a directive: Clean it.

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It's natural for a tangle of questions to arise after reading news like this. Here are a few we're considering: What kind of comb did Klobuchar use to eat the salad? (A tail comb is likely because of its pointed end, but we do not know for sure.) We know she told the staffer to clean the comb after she was done eating, but did she clean the comb before she used it? What kind of salad was involved here? Was she able to spear a cherry tomato with that thing?

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Reports of Klobuchar mistreating staff started to circulate earlier this month, when HuffPost and BuzzFeed News published interviews with former staffers about her conduct. Klobuchar responded to those stories as she announced her presidential bid on February 10.

"Yes, I can be tough, and yes I can push people,” she said. “I have high expectations for myself, I have high expectations for the people that work for me, but I have high expectations for this country.”

To be clear, the comb anecdote is not the most important part of the reports on Klobuchar's behavior. Her treatment of employees, particularly her parental leave policy -- which technically required employees to pay back their leave compensation if they didn't stay on staff long enough afterward -- is genuine cause for concern.

It's not just an issue for 2020, either. These incidents should be interpreted, as Libby Watson wrote for Splinter last week, as "a story of a shitty boss and workers who deserve better" -- the viral stories and the less Tweet-able allegations both.

And for the love of god, clean your comb fork before you use it.