Ron DeSantis Responds to Three-Finger Pudding Claims

Food and the manner in which it is eaten has proved a stumbling block for numerous politicians over the years. Now Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida, has said he could not recall eating a pudding with three fingers instead of a spoon.

The possible Republican presidential candidate was the subject of a long-read feature in The Daily Beast on March 16, which cited two sources saying that on a private plane ride from Tallahassee, Florida to Washington D.C. in March 2019, DeSantis had enjoyed a chocolate pudding dessert without the requisite cutlery.

It is not the first time an odd culinary incident has come back to haunt a political candidate: in 2019, the New York Times reported Democratic presidential hopeful Amy Klobuchar had eaten a salad with a comb after an aide forgot to bring a fork on a flight. And in 2012, footage emerged of Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor, arguing with a heckler on the street while eating an ice cream.

Across the pond, in 2017 then-U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May drew headlines when she was pictured awkwardly chowing down on a pack of chips during a visit to the seaside. It came two years after then-opposition leader, Ed Miliband, had been caught on camera making a mess of a bacon sandwich—which some suggested contributed to his election defeat.

The Daily Beast wrote that the Florida governor's alleged indecorous eating was "enshrined in DeSantis lore," and served as context to what a former staffer described as his habit of "getting s**t everywhere" while eating during meetings.

Newsweek reached out to DeSantis' office for comment via email on Friday.

Asked about the incident by Piers Morgan in an interview on Fox News on Thursday, DeSantis said: "I don't remember ever doing that," but went on to suggest he was happy the claims being made about him were not more serious.

"Maybe when I was a kid," he added. "But it's interesting: there's a lot of people when they go at you, sometimes they have really good ammunition, like 'you're a crook, you did this, you did that.' For me, they're talking about pudding? Like is that really the best you've got? OK, bring it on."

DeSantis went on to deny that he even eats puddings anymore, stating: "No way, it's sugar, man."

While DeSantis made light of the alleged three-fingered faux pas, other outlets suggested it could prove to be damning for his political hopes.

The New York Magazine wrote that the claim "will end his 2024 bid"—a reference to the 2024 presidential campaign, for which DeSantis has yet to declare his candidacy but is viewed as a likely frontrunner in the Republican field—as "voters don't want a president who's been credibly accused of licking dessert from his paw like a cartoon bear."

Rolling Stone made a tongue-in-cheek comparison to the Monica Lewinsky scandal that saw Bill Clinton nearly impeached, while Vanity Fair said the mental image "will haunt your dreams."

However, political columnist Matt Walsh came to DeSantis' defense, arguing on his podcast that while it was "uncouth" behavior, "what else are you supposed to do if you don't have a spoon?"

"In a situation like that, you do what you have to do," he added. "This tells me that Ron DeSantis is a man who's not afraid to get his hands dirty, not afraid to do what needs to be done in the moment to get the job done."