Ron DeSantis' Churchill-Inspired 'Never Surrender' Speech Sparks Backlash
potential 2024 GOP candidate with Republican voters, after Donald Trump, making him the former president's closest primary opponent.During his address DeSantis commented: "I recognize that the woke mind virus represents a war on the truth, so we will wage a war on the woke.
We will fight the woke in education, we will fight the woke in the corporations, we will fight the woke in the halls of Congress."The remarks seemed based around an iconic speech delivered by Churchill on June 4 1940, in the U.K.
House of Commons, as the German army moved across France and British troops had to be rescued from the beaches at Dunkirk.Seeking to boost British moral, Churchill asserted: "We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."DeSantis's address triggered a backlash on social media, with some offended by the apparent comparison between him and Churchill.Richard Stengel, who served in the Obama administration as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs between 2014 and 2016, tweeted: "DeSantis deliberately evoking Churchill ("We will fight them on the beaches"), but Churchill was fighting Nazism, an enemy bent on world domination, while DeSantis is fighting, well, empathy and compassion.
Not the same."DeSantis deliberately evoking Churchill (“We will fight them on the beaches”), but Churchill was fighting Nazism, an enemy bent on world domination, while DeSantis is.
