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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is hoping to win the presidency by positioning himself as Donald Trump with out the feral, off-putting persona. Or any persona, actually. Does a subtly pained facial features introduced on by six days with no bowel motion rely as a persona? If that’s the case, DeSantis is a daily (or, fairly, irregular) Rip Taylor, however with marginally much less confetti.
However hey, at the least DeSantis has a army file, in contrast to his prime GOP rival, Bone Spurious the Yellow. Sadly, it’s not a file anybody must be bragging about—at the least if the alleged particulars of DeSantis’ stint at Guantanamo Bay are any indication.
Semafor is reporting that Showtime shelved a DeSantis-focused episode of its VICE documentary collection earlier this yr over fears of a possible backlash. The episode, titled “The Guantanamo Candidate,” examines DeSantis’ tenure at Guantanamo Bay, the place he served as a lawyer from March 2006 to January 2007.
RELATED STORY: DeSantis assaults on Florida’s New Faculty hit house as college flee
Semafor:
Vice reporters had secured on digicam interviews with a former detainee, Mansoor Adayfi, and a guard on the jail, employees sergeant Joe Hickman. Each mentioned they remembered seeing DeSantis on the jail throughout a controversial detainee starvation strike. The Vice crew traveled to Guantanamo Bay to try to attempt to converse to army employees, and made a number of makes an attempt to ask DeSantis concerning the allegations straight, ultimately confronting him at a press convention in Israel, in keeping with an in depth description offered to Semafor.
However Showtime viewers who turned on their televisions Might 28 by no means noticed the episode. (They have been handled to a re-run of the scripted drama Yellowjackets.)
Effectively, “Yellowjackets” is rattling good, to be truthful. And it’s a few group of people that step by step lose their minds attempting to outlive in a desolate, unforgiving wilderness, ultimately resorting to indiscriminate cannibalism to remain alive. So it’s a fantastic primer for the 2024 GOP Iowa caucus in case you actually give it some thought.
In early June, VICE informed The Hollywood Reporter, “As with all present affairs programming there will be scheduling adjustments, and we’re very a lot nonetheless in dialogue concerning the scheduling of this episode. We’re happy with our reporting and of our persevering with partnership with Showtime.” In the meantime, Showtime merely acknowledged, “We don’t touch upon scheduling selections.”
Since then, Semafor has discovered that the community truly acquired chilly toes.
However in actual fact, two individuals accustomed to the incident mentioned, the Paramount-owned cable channel ditched the DeSantis episode over fears of the political penalties. One particular person briefed on the choice informed Semafor that the corporate’s Washington lobbyist, DeDe Lea, raised considerations concerning the piece.
For its half, VICE acknowledged by way of spokesperson Elise Flick, “We not solely stand behind our rigorous reporting however are happy with the unimaginable journalism showcased on this story.”
The choice was made as Showtime undergoes near-seismic adjustments to its enterprise mannequin. As Semafor reviews, Showtime’s guardian firm, Paramount, has been making cuts “to mirror a depressing streaming enterprise.” It additionally carried out a spherical of layoffs, and among the many casualties was the manager who authorized these sorts of “status” documentaries.
Nonetheless, the episode’s cancelation appeared sudden contemplating it had already gotten the go-ahead from Showtime executives and VICE’s authorized group. Showtime and VICE had additionally begun sending promotional supplies to reporters. However simply 4 days earlier than the documentary was scheduled to premiere, Showtime’s post-production employees despatched a observe to VICE saying, “The broader community group groups are taking a deeper inner have a look at this Sunday’s episode, which can delay its premiere.”
VICE requested for extra particulars on the choice, however Showtime failed to reply and “shortly scrubbed promotion of the episode from its web site.”
And that in itself is a disgrace, as a result of a few of the main points Showtime initially had on its website have been tantalizing. As an illustration, it had claimed the episode featured allegations from “former detainees that [DeSantis] was current at force-feedings that have been condemned as torture by the UN.”
In accordance with a July 13 Hollywood Reporter story, Showtime ultimately pulled your entire VICE documentary collection in early July with half a season to go, and VICE is presently searching for a brand new house for the present.
However regardless of the motive for the Might disappearance of VICE’s DeSantis doc, the Gitmo scandal is unlikely to go away. Given the seemingly intractable MAGA-fication of the Republican citizens, revelations that DeSantis was current as detainees have been tortured may truly assist him within the primaries—however they may not appear fairly as lovable to your common swing voter subsequent November.
As an illustration, Ahmed Abdel Aziz, a former Gitmo detainee who was launched after 13 years, claimed he remembers seeing DeSantis on the facility, and that DeSantis witnessed and acquired complaints about pressured feeding. “He didn’t begin as a really unhealthy man, however the course of occasions, I feel, led him to don’t have any alternative,” Aziz informed McClatchy by way of the Tampa Bay Occasions. “Lots of the very huge management, in the event that they wish to be harsh, it’s laborious from the decrease individuals to take a distinct flip. He aligned with the unhealthy individuals in the long run.”
One other detainee, whom VICE additionally interviewed for its documentary, informed McClatchy he clearly remembers DeSantis being current throughout at the least one force-feeding.
Mansoor Adayfi, a Yemeni nationwide who was despatched to Guantanamo Bay in 2002 and in addition held with out being charged for 14 years, informed McClatchy that he realized after seeing Florida’s governor on the information that DeSantis was current at one level as he was force-fed in Camp Delta. Adayfi mentioned he remembers DeSantis being there alongside Zak Ghuneim, the camp’s longtime cultural adviser, and that he vomited on each of them, an account that Ghuneim denied in a telephone interview.
Hopefully VICE’s DeSantis documentary sees the sunshine of day earlier than lengthy, as a result of if it appears like Trump would possibly truly go to jail, Republican voters may take away their heads from their pure docking stations lengthy sufficient to search for a viable different. And for some motive, DeSantis stays the also-ran with one of the best polling numbers.
RELATED STORY: DeSantis’ whole major technique has been upended. His new one is fatally flawed
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