Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis found himself in the middle of a controversy when a Daily Beast article reported that he ate pudding with three fingers during a 2019 private flight. On March 23, 2023, in an interview on "Piers Morgan Uncensored" for Fox Nation, broadcaster Piers Morgan questioned DeSantis on this report, asking if he did indeed eat pudding with three fingers. "I don't remember doing that," DeSantis said.
A screenshot of the Fox Nation clip went viral showing a chyron reading: "Ron: I didn't eat pudding with 3 fingers."
These are authentic screenshots from a clip of the interview that was shared on "Jesse Waters Primetime."
(Screenshot via Fox Nation)
(Screenshot via Fox Nation)
The Daily Beast report from March 16, 2023, noted DeSantis struggles with basic social skills. According to two anonymous sources, while on a private plane trip from Tallahassee to Washington, D.C., in March 2019, DeSantis ate a chocolate pudding dessert with three fingers. And this was not the only eating habit featured in the report.
"He would sit in meetings and eat in front of people," a former DeSantis staffer told The Daily Beast, "always like a starving animal who has never eaten before […] getting shit everywhere."
In the Fox Nation interview, Morgan asked DeSantis to respond to the rumors about his pudding consumption. In their now-viral exchange, he asked, "I was asking about your fingers because of this [...] scandal which broke last week that you apparently were eating chocolate pudding with three fingers now [...] I have to put it to you, Governor, have you ever eaten a chocolate pudding with three fingers?"
DeSantis responded, "I don't remember ever doing that. Maybe when I was a kid, but it's interesting there's a lot of people who 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, and I'm like, 'Is that really the best you've got? OK, bring it on!'"
The exchange can be seen at the 1:03:32 mark:
A former DeSantis staffer who had spoken to The Daily Beast for its original feature noted that DeSantis did not issue a complete denial. "It's quite interesting that the governor didn't flat out deny eating pudding with three fingers," the source said.