Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at a news conference on Dec. 15, 2020, in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Michael Laughlin, South Florida Sun Sentinel/TNS)
NEW YORK (Tribune News Service) — Ron DeSantis appears to have been canceled — by Showtime.
The Florida governor and GOP presidential hopeful was to be the subject of an episode of the premium cable channel’s newsmagazine series “Vice.” Promoted to premiere on May 28, the show didn’t air as scheduled; previously aired programming reportedly ran in its place.
No explanation was given.
“We don’t comment on scheduling decisions,” a spokesperson for Showtime told The Daily News Monday.
“The Gitmo Candidate & Chipping Away” was the title of the half-hour episode of the series, which has prided itself on “delivering immersive reporting from the frontlines of global conflict, civil uprisings and more.”
The episode’s description teased potentially explosive material about the polarizing politician. According to The Hollywood Reporter it detailed allegations from former Guantanamo Bay detainees that he witnessed acts condemned by the United Nations as torture during his past service as a Navy JAG officer at the naval base in Cuba.
Former detainee Mansoor Adayfi previously revealed during a Nov. 2022 podcast interview that DeSantis looked on with amusement as he and others were force-fed through a nasal feeding tube pushed down their throats.
The Yemen-born detainee also known as Abdul Rahman Ahmed — who was released after 14 years in 2016 without charges — detailed the experience during a discussion with U.S. Army veteran and anti-war activist Michael Prysner.
“Ron DeSantis was there and watching us,” he claimed. “We were crying, screaming. We were tied to the feeding chair and that guy; he was watching that. He was laughing basically when they used to feed us, because … our stomach cannot hold this amount of Ensure. They used to pour Ensure, one can after another, one can after another. So, when he approached me, I said this is the way we are treated. He said, ‘You should start to eat.’ …I threw up on his face. Literally on his face.”
DeSantis joined the Navy in 2004 and was stationed in Guantanamo and Iraq before serving as a special assistant U.S. attorney in Florida until 2010. The Jacksonville-born Harvard Law School alum served in the U.S. Navy Reserve until 2019.
Materials about the “Vice” episode have been scrubbed from Showtime’s website and press portal, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“As with all current affairs programming there can be scheduling changes, and we are very much still in discussion about the scheduling of this episode,” a Vice rep told the outlet. “We are proud of our reporting and of our continuing partnership with Showtime.”
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