Florida Governor Ron DeSantis concluded his 2024 presidential bid on a somewhat awkward note, facing ridicule for incorporating a fabricated Winston Churchill quote in his announcement.
DeSantis endorsed former President Donald Trump while announcing the withdrawal from the presidential bid race.
DeSantis Endorses Trump as He Exits Race
Posting a video on microblogging website 'X', formerly known as Twitter, DeSantis, captioned it with a quote attributing it to the former British prime minister, who passed away in 1965. "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts- Winston Churchill," the post read.
The Florida Governor, who was considered the most formidable rival to Trump during the initial stages of his campaign, endorsed the former U.S. President in his statement. "I can't ask our supporters to volunteer their time and donate their resources if we don't have a clear path to victory. It's clear to me that a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance," he said.
"They watched his presidency get stymied by relentless resistance. Trump is superior to the current incumbent, Joe Biden. That is clear," he went on to add.
DeSantis' Blunder Creates Chaos
The internet was quick to catch DeSantis' blunder regarding the quote being misattributed to the former British Prime Minister. The New York Times reported that according to the according to the International Churchill Society, while Churchill did say, "Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm."
"We can find no attribution for either one of these, and you will find that they are broadly attributed to Winston Churchill. They are found nowhere in his canon, however. An almost equal number of sources found online credit these sayings to Abraham Lincoln—but we have found none that provides any attribution in the Lincoln Archives," the Society says on its website while highlighting the quote in question.
A user posted that as per the Quote Investigator, the quote in question came from a 1930s Budweiser ad. "A version closely matching the full expression appeared in the 1930s in an advertising campaign for Budweiser beer, a product of the Anheuser-Busch company," the website states.
Meanwhile social media users went ahead to troll the Florida Governor for his mistake. "Ron DeSantis is a horrible politician and an even worse man. No matter how bad he is, he still should be out of politics for his ridiculous attempt to appropriate Winston Churchill's image for his own, which he also failed at miserably," tweeted a user.
"JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT THEY COULDN'T POSSIBLY GET ANY DUMBER...... Ron DeSantis Posts Fake Winston Churchill Quote After Suspending Campaign," read another post.
"His campaign has ended but his idiocy has not! Ron DeSantis ends presidential campaign by misquoting Winston Churchill," opined another user.
Ron DeSantis drops out, his Churchill quote was faker than this picture. pic.twitter.com/CKKoZ3SfTj
— Chris (@ChrisBrooksVA9) January 22, 2024
