JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — After Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that he would suspend his campaign for the presidency.
He posted a 4 minute 33 second video to X and his other social media pages. At 2 minutes and 33 seconds, he announces that he doesn't believe there is a path to victory.
The caption of the post says only, "'Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.'- Winston Churchill."
Critics on social media, however, were quick to respond that Churchill did not utter those words.
THE QUESTION
Did DeSantis's incorrectly reference Churchill?
THE SOURCES
- The International Churchill Society
THE ANSWER
Yes, DeSantis misquoted Churchill in this tweet. Not only did Churchill not say those words -- there is no clear record showing where the quote comes from.
WHAT WE FOUND
The International Churchill Society has this quote on their list of "Quotes Falsely Attributed to Winston Churchill," an ongoing page most recently updated January 17. The Society has not found this quote anywhere in their archives of Churchill's speeches and writing.
The page also says that while "almost an equal number of sources found online" credit Abraham Lincoln for this quote, there is no such quote in Lincoln's archives, either.
