Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks at a conference titled “Honor the Face of Israel” held at the Jerusalem Museum of Tolerance on April 27, 2023.
Maya Areruzzo | AFP | Getty Images
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis presidential election campaign On Wednesday night, a major technical glitch on Twitter derailed plans for the announcement and temporarily prevented him from announcing his candidacy.
Twitter owner Elon Musk said the app’s live audio stream was supposed to have a conversation between him and Mr. DeSantis, but the first verbal announcement about his candidacy for the governor’s White House was “something on the server.” is under the burden of
Musk’s comments came during a period of about 25 minutes after the scheduled 6 p.m. was done in
Musk and his ally, investor David Sachs, launched a new Twitter Space webcast after the initial webcast failed. However, technical issues surfaced even in that vein, such as during Mr. DeSantis’ remarks.
Mr. DeSantis had filed papers with the federal government earlier in the day and had officially become a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. His campaign also released a video in which DeSantis says he is “running for president to lead America’s great comeback.”
But it was DeSantis’ unusual decision to make the big announcement on a voice-only Twitter tool that got the most attention.
The first Spaces event to be canceled registered over 500,000 listeners before being completely canceled.
When he was finally able to speak uninterruptedly, DeSantis began by repeating some of what he had said in a pre-recorded video just released by his campaign.
“I am running for President of the United States to lead America’s great comeback,” DeSantis said on Twitter. He blamed the president on issues such as crime and economic instability. Joe Biden for lacking “vigor” and taking “cues from the awakened mob”.
The failed event comes as Mr. Musk pushes Twitter to grow its revenue. Earlier this month, he hired former NBCUniversal head of advertising Linda Yaccarino to replace him as CEO of the social media platform. Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in October. Since then, he has cut about 80% of the company’s workforce.
After the event ends, Mr. Musk tweeted: “All presidential candidates are very welcome to join this platform.”
A DeSantis campaign insider told NBC News to look positively at the sputtering incident, saying, “Governor DeSantis destroyed the internet. That should tell us everything there is to know about the strength of his candidacy…!”
But DeSantis’ critics and his powerful political opponents pounced on the glitch festival.
“His collar is too big!” Trump wrote on his Twitter-like social platform Truth Social.
Meanwhile, Biden’s official Twitter account used the opportunity to appeal for donations to the re-election campaign.
“This link works,” Biden tweeted with a link to his ActBlue donation page.
