Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ failed attempt to produce a genuine smile on stage during the Republican primary debate created a lot of buzz on social media.

At the end of an applause line, DeSantis seemed to attempt a smile then seemed to have rethought the gesture or simply failed to produce one on demand. The end result was this half-hearted smile and half-grimace that ended up looking really awkward on the camera, which was zoomed onto his face at the time. However, the camera quickly zoomed out and focused on the rest of the candidates on stage.

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The social media was filled with memes about DeSantis’ forced smile. While some called out his “forced” grin, others straight up called him an alien pretending to be human.

DeSantis also found himself in hot waters due to his comments on abortion during the debate. When asked about the controversial topic, the GOP member he dove into a legendary tale which has never fact-checked to be true.

“I know a lady in Florida named Penny. She survived multiple abortion attempts. She was left discarded in a pan,” DeSantis said. “Fortunately, her grandmother saved her and brought her to a different hospital. We’re better than what the Democrats are selling. We are not going to allow abortion all the way up till birth, and we will hold them accountable for their extremism.”

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Following his seemingly fantastical tale on the debate stage, many on social media pointed out how “late-term” abortions targeting born, living infants was nor real as abortion all the way up to birth almost never happens.

“Ron desantis said he knows a lady named penny from florida who “survived multiple abortion attempts” and was left discarded in a pan……….. then he didn’t speak again for like 10 minutes?” one of the users on X, formerly known as Twitter said. Another commented: “I for one, would like to meet the aborted fetus that was pulled off a pan, rushed to a hospital, and saved by her grandmother. I feel like a Trump insider fed DeSantis that bullshit and he just ran with it. Lol”