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- Ron DeSantis is struggling in the polls.
- He's trying to reboot his campaign to regain momentum.
- People yelling "pudding fingers!" at him isn't helping.
In March, the Daily Beast's Jake Lahut bravely reported a rumor that had been making the rounds in certain Florida-centric political gossip circles: Florida governor and once-promising presidential contender Ron DeSantis ate chocolate pudding by shoveling the messy dessert into his mouth with three fingers while on a private jet in 2019.
The Daily Beast's story — which cited two disgusted anonymous sources — went viral, and in some ways presaged DeSantis' rapid fall from grace in national polls.
Since officially launching his presidential run in May, DeSantis has laid off staffers, dealt with a Nazi imagery scandal, defended an anti-LBGT video his campaign shared on Twitter, and rebooted his campaign by putting another rookie in charge.
He's also getting stomped by former President Donald Trump in the GOP race, with relative newcomers like Vivek Ramaswamy nipping at his heels.
But even with all of his campaign's recent high-profile mishaps, the pudding rumor remains fresh in the mind of DeSantis' critics.
"Pudding fingers!" protestors shouted at the governor on Friday in Menlo, Iowa, Politico reported.
—Stephanie Murray (@stephanie_murr) August 11, 2023
DeSantis said in an interview at the time that he doesn't remember eating pudding with his fingers, but he welcomes it as an insult. "Like is that really the best you've got?" he told Piers Morgan in March. "Okay, bring it on!"
DeSantis' campaign didn't immediately respond to our request for comment about Friday's heckling.
Political controversies come and go, but the mental image of an ambitious but aloof governor eating chocolate pudding with his fingers on a private jet is clearly lingering.
And it wasn't just unorthodox pudding eating that irked former staffers.
"He would sit in meetings and eat in front of people, always like a starving animal who has never eaten before… getting shit everywhere," a former DeSantis staffer told the Daily Beast.
At least he wasn't constantly chewing gum.