'Screw NBC': Fact Check of Ron DeSantis’ Israel Rescue Flights Debate Claim Does Not Go According to Plan

Though opinions of course vary, the consensus seems to be that Wednesday's Miami Republican presidential debate was the more substantive of the three that have been held so far, with the candidates landing jabs on each other but also being pinned down on where they stood on foreign and domestic policy issues.

As per the norm, purported "fact checkers" were on standby to ~~insult our intelligence~~ dissect the claims made by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.S Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

One such fact check was of a statement made by Gov. DeSantis on his executive order that cleared the way for rescue flights for Floridians trapped in Israel as well as deliveries of supplies to the country, an EO he signed five days after the Hamas-instigated war with Israel began.

DeSantis correctly pointed out that over 700 had been brought home safely from the war-torn region, saying "I scrambled resources in Florida. I sent planes over to Israel, and I brought back over 700 people to safety.”

But according to NBC News, DeSantis' claim was only "half true" - because he wasn't flying the planes himself:

“Biden’s neglect has been atrocious,” DeSantis said. “He left them stranded; they couldn’t get flights out. So I scrambled resources in Florida. I sent planes over to Israel, and I brought back over 700 people to safety.”
This is half-true. The Biden administration initially told Americans in Israel to take advantage of commercial flights on Oct. 9, but flights from Israel to the U.S. were scarce, and prices were reportedly as high as $25,000. Some Americans in Israel at the time posted on social media that they were stranded.
On Oct. 12, DeSantis signed an executive order that allowed the Florida Division of Emergency Management to pay for Americans in Israel to fly back to the U.S. The flights, however, were organized by the Tampa-based nonprofit group Project Dynamo, which specializes in rescuing Americans in distress, and DeSantis’ primary role was to fund the flights.

Fact-checking Ron DeSantis' claim that he evacuated over 700 Americans out of Israel. https://t.co/ecNuIWbPji pic.twitter.com/yLPA7GGTH3
— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 9, 2023

The Community Note added to it was spot on.

"The governor ordered the evacuation via an EO. The mechanics of how it was done doesn’t negate the fact that the Governor’s statement is true," it read.

Further, as one Twitter user, Faye Hausendorff, explained, DeSantis' involvement wasn't just to fund the flights:

Ok, I’m also going to call bullshit on the NBC note that Gov DeSantis “just” funded the flights. You and the rest of Gov DeSantis’s staff have been too modest to talk about this too much on Twitter, but I heard directly from friends and acquaintances who were on those flights how much you guys did to get them safely to the plane. If I understood correctly, there was quick coordination by the staff with IDF and Israeli government sources to get those passengers who were in dangerous areas to the flight in one piece and safely. In the case of one woman and her two young kids who had to hide in the car overnight, Gov DeSantis’s office kept talking to her and the IDF all throughout the night until they arrived safely at Ben-Gurion.
In the words of one acquaintance, a lifelong lefty, “Gov DeSantis’s people got me home, and my emergency email to the State Department went unanswered.” So no, the Governor and his staff did not just arrange for funding. You all may literally have saved lives. I am eternally grateful. And screw NBC.

There was also this from the NBC News "fact check" division, this time trying to debunk a claim from Sen. Scott: