Caucus Byte: Ol' Puddin' Fingers

I am using this blog to capture some of the weirdest moments of the 2024 Iowa Caucuses 

This one is a short one and has to do the uniqueness of the possibilities that come out when candidates have to face a hostile audience. 

Politico reports from Menlo, Iowa (pop. 345)

Chanting “Ron DeFascist” and “pudding fingers” on a megaphone while ringing cowbells, two protesters effectively cut short the Florida governor’s first campaign stop of the day at a large roadside rock painted for war veterans. 

Now, I don’t necessarily think we should heckle candidates but I am including this for a reason.

It was the second notable disruption of a Republican presidential candidate by the left in Iowa this week, after a Democrat on Thursday asked Mike Pence at the Iowa State Fair, “Why did you commit treason on Jan. 6?” At the DeSantis event, Kara Ryan of Des Moines said she and her aunt, Heather Ryan, were there on behalf of a political action committee called “Bitches Get Stuff Done,” that supports abortion rights. 

I am not going to write about everything happens this year, but when Bitches Get Stuff Done PAC show up, how can I not? 

Earlier this year, a pro-Trump PAC ran an ad Ron DeSantis loves sticking his fingers where they don’t belong,” the advertisement says. Throughout the video, headlines from publications criticising Mr DeSantis appear over the images of the man eating pudding. The advertisement accuses Mr DeSantis of cutting Medicare, Social Security, and raising the retirement age “Tell Ron DeSantis to keep his pudding fingers off his money,” the advertisement says. “And oh, somebody get this man a spoon.” 

Whereas most candidates generally would confront accusations head on, DeSantis has oddly danced around the allegation.

In March, Mr DeSantis chose not to outright deny that he ate chocolate pudding with three fingers on a private flight in 2019. 

The Daily Beast noted that Mr DeSantis sometimes struggles to “read the room”. “I don’t remember ever doing that,” the governor told Piers Morgan in an interview on Fox Nation. “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,’” he added. “For me, they’re talking about pudding, and I’m like, ‘Is that really the best you’ve got? OK, bring it on!’” 

You see this is why I throw this in the blog, 20 years from now I want people to know this information.

Two people told The Daily Beast that Mr DeSantis enjoyed a chocolate pudding by eating it with three of his fingers during a March 2019 private flight from Tallahassee to Washington, DC. 

UK website/newspaper The Independent reported some awkwardness on the campaign trail 

When he was in Iowa, it was reported that Mr DeSantis’s team used bike racks to create space between him and attendees. 

Multiple former staffers have said that nearly everything the governor does is scripted. Stories of the governor eating during meetings have also surfaced. “He would sit in meetings and eat in front of people, always like a starving animal who has never eaten before… getting s*** everywhere,” one ex-staffer told The Daily Beast.

Given the hectic schedule, I won't make fun of a starving DeSantis