In bowing out of the running for GOP presidential candidate, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis misattributed a quote to former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
"This is America's time for choosing," DeSantis said in a video posted to X/Twitter on Sunday afternoon announcing the suspension of his campaign. "We can choose to allow border invasion, or we can choose to stop it. We can choose reckless borrowing and spending, or we can choose to limit government and lower inflation." Amongst other notes, the Florida governor also patted himself on the back for "leading with conviction, championing an agenda marked by bold colors."
"I'm proud to have delivered on 100% of my promises, and I will not stop now," he added, before saying that Donald Trump is "superior to Joe Biden," in a move that seemingly conceded his endorsement to the former president.
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts," DeSantis captioned the clip, identifying the words as Churchill's. However, the New York Times reported that the quote was falsely attributed, per the International Churchill Society. “We can find no attribution for either one of these, and you will find that they are broadly attributed to Winston Churchill,” the organization stated. “They are found nowhere in his canon, however.”
Following the posting of the video, one Twitter user pointed out that the quote actually appeared in a Budweiser beer ad circa 1938, with a 20th-century copy of "Life Magazine" found on Google Books showing the ad, per Newsweek.
DeSantis' apparent blunder was panned across social media.
"DeSantis quit with a fake Churchill line! Maybe the actual quote is in one of the books he banned?" tweeted Christine Pelosi, a Democratic political consultant and daughter of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. The Florida governor is well known as one of the GOP's most staunch "culture warriors," campaigning from a platform that prioritizes objectives such as banning books in school libraries that address topics of sexuality and gender identity and curbing lessons on race studies.
"He’s quoting George Santos," quipped former attorney George Conway, referring to the disgraced former Congressman who made headlines for habitually lying about his background.
Following the news of DeSantis' dropping out, critics came for his campaign, which had seen a decided dropoff in popularity in recent months, owing largely to his inability to make good with Disney — the state's largest employer — over his "Don't say gay" crusade, infighting in his campaign, his shoddy response to COVID-19 with anti-vax rhetoric, and reported lack of personal charm.
"Ron DeSantis should be forced to carry his presidential campaign to term," wrote one X/Twitter user, in a sardonic reference to the governor's stringent views on abortion.
California Governor Gavin Newsom quipped on Sunday that there was a "Fire sale on all Ron DeSantis merch today!"
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"Congrats to the crack DeSantis comms team," tweeted former MNSBC host Medhi Hasan, "... for being unable to get their guy even to New Hampshire," referring to the fact that DeSantis didn't even make it to the New Hampshire primary. "One of the most embarrassing, hapless, & disastrous presidential campaigns in memory. They couldn’t even teach Ron to smile."
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The Miami Herald's editorial board, in a scathing opinion piece published on Sunday, claimed that it's "not just that he [DeSantis] was steamrolled by Trump. DeSantis never appeared to want to save the GOP."
"He was more interested in making it a more ravenous, angrier, and intolerant party," the board continued. "That worked for Trump, but didn't work for the governor with all the charisma of burned toast."
"DeSantis could have pitched a kinder form of conservatism or at least a more reasonable version," the board concluded. "Instead, he banked on exploiting division in our country. As he blows out, DeSantis leaves the Republican Party exactly as he found it, under Trump's dominance."
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