Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Ron DeSantis Mocked For Using Fake Churchill Quote In Campaign Suspension Announcement

Ron DeSantis; Winston Churchill
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images; Keystone/Getty Images

Ron DeSantis left the 2024 presidential primary race on Sunday with a post featuring a fake Winston Churchill quote.

Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis officially suspended his 2024 presidential campaign on Sunday—and was swiftly mocked for sharing a post announcing the suspension that featured a fake quote attributed to Winston Churchill, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom best known for leading the nation during World War II.

In his announcement, DeSantis said he would leave the race and confirmed he would endorse former President Donald Trump, to whom he came second in the Iowa caucuses by 30 percentage points:


"Trump is superior to the current incumbent, Joe Biden. That is clear. I signed a pledge to support the Republican nominee, and I will honor that pledge. He has my endorsement because we can’t go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear.”

To top it all off, he attributed the following "quote" to Churchill:

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts."

He added:

"While this campaign has ended, the mission continues.”

You can see DeSantis' post and hear what he said in the video below.

Winston Churchill never made the quoted remark and the International Churchill Society, dedicated to studying Churchill's life and works, has found no evidence that Churchill ever made this statement, saying it came to this conclusion “on careful research in the canon of fifty million words by and about Churchill, including all of his books, articles, speeches and papers.”

The organization said the following on its website:

“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 to the Lincoln Archives.”

Interestingly, although Churchill is known for saying, "Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm," even this phrase is not definitively credited to him.

DeSantis was immediately mocked as a result including by Mark Hamill, who offered up a quote of his own.


Others were more than willing to pile on.


After campaigning in South Carolina, DeSantis returned to Tallahassee late Saturday and his scheduled appearance at a campaign event in New Hampshire on Sunday afternoon was canceled.

Even before DeSantis officially announced the end of his campaign, Trump had already begun speaking about it in the past tense. At a Saturday evening rally in Manchester, Trump said of DeSantis, "May he rest in peace."

The previous week, signs had emerged that DeSantis was considering stepping back from the race. He started discussing the possibility of the 2028 election and acknowledged that Trump had secured a decisive victory in Iowa.

More from News/2024-election

Halle Berry
Fortune Magazine

Halle Berry Warns That Women Are Turning Themselves Into 'Monsters' With Cosmetic Surgery

Academy Award-winning actor Halle Berry pushed back against the stigmatization of women and aging in a powerful interview with Fortune magazine.

The 58-year-old Hollywood bombshell established herself as a leading actor in 2001 when she became the first African-American woman and first woman of color to win the Oscar for her captivating performance as a struggling widow in Monster's Ball.

Keep ReadingShow less
Khalid
Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Audacy

Musician Khalid Opens Up About His Sexuality After Being 'Outed' By Ex On Social Media

Singer-songwriter Khalid opened up about his sexuality in a series of candid tweets in response to being "outed" by fellow musician Hugo D Almonte, who implied they'd been in a relationship.

Khalid shared a Pride flag emoji along with the following short and sweet message:

Keep ReadingShow less
Rudy Giuliani
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Courtroom Sketch Artist's Drawings Of Rudy Giuliani Looking Unhinged Are An Instant Classic

Courtroom sketch artist Jane Rosenberg's latest sketches of the disbarred former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani have gone viral after she captured him in remarkable detail lashing out in court.

Giuliani appeared in federal court in Manhattan for a case where he has been ordered to pay nearly $150 million to two Georgia election workers he defamed.

Keep ReadingShow less
Man appearing shocked and regretful while on the phone
Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

People Share Their Biggest 'I F*cked Up' Experiences

We're all human here, so we all make mistakes. Most mistakes can be resolved with a genuine apology, hot glue to fix a broken vase, and a good cleaning solution for a big spill.

Other mistakes, like bullying someone or breaking someone's heart, are much more guilt-inducing and harder for everyone to get over.

Keep ReadingShow less
Ariana Grande; Grande's nonna
Neil Mockford/WireImage/GettyImages, @arianagrande/Instagram

Ariana Grande Watched 'Wicked' With Her Grandma At Her Childhood Movie Theater—And We're Sobbing

Ariana Grande took her 99-year-old grandma, Marjorie Grande—affectionately known as Nonna—to see the film adaptation of Wicked at a very special movie theater last week, a moment the pop idol has waited for since, since birth!

Grande has been obsessed with Wicked ever since her Nonna took her to see the Broadway musical version in 2003 when Grande was ten years old.

Keep ReadingShow less