Ron DeSantis’s 2024 presidential campaign started not with a bang but a whimper on Wednesday evening, after the Florida governor’s launch event with billionaire Elon Musk was marred by technical glitches.
The DeSantis campaign and Musk had widely promoted a live launch event on Twitter on Wednesday evening using the social media platform’s audio streaming feature, Twitter Spaces. That event started nearly half an hour late, after Musk repeatedly failed in attempts to begin the conversation.
More than half a million Twitter users who tuned in at 6pm local time heard long stretches of silence, punctuated by Musk saying, “servers are straining somewhat”, and “I think we are back online?”
In the end, Musk and his co-host, Paypal’s founding chief operating officer David Sacks, successfully started the broadcast by congratulating DeSantis on “breaking the internet”.
DeSantis then launched into a truncated version of his stump speech, telling listeners: “I am running for president of the United States to lead our great American comeback.”
The conversation continued with a question-and-answer session peppered with periodic disruptions in the audio feed.
It was an inauspicious start for the Republican governor who has slipped in opinion polls and faced growing scepticism from deep-pocketed donors who question his approach to social issues such as abortion. It was an equally high-profile setback for Musk, a self-described free speech absolutist and the chief executive of Tesla who bought Twitter for $44bn last year.
DeSantis nevertheless heaped praise on Musk: “You had to put your money where your mouth is, because I think you recognised you can’t have a free society unless we have the freedom to debate the most important issues that are affecting our civilisation.”
“I think what was done on Twitter is really significant for the future of our country,” he added. “We cannot have a society in which government is colluding with major tech platforms to enforce an orthodoxy.”
DeSantis’s allies said launching his campaign on Twitter underscored the governor’s unconventional approach and willingness to buck the status quo.
Some fellow Republicans are sceptical of DeSantis’s leadership, however, including his feud with the Walt Disney over the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The media company has filed a lawsuit against the governor and his administration.
DeSantis defended his approach to Disney in Wednesday’s Twitter broadcast, saying: “I think some of these Republicans that are taking Disney’s side, they are basically showing themselves to be corporatists . . . Obviously we are going to defend our actions because we think we have the right to do what we did.”
Earlier on Wednesday, DeSantis filed paperwork with the Federal Elections Commission to formally launch his campaign, ending months of speculation over when he would formally mount his bid to challenge Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.
DeSantis also posted a slick, one-minute video to social media, centred on the governor standing alone in front of an American flag while an orchestral soundtrack swells.
“Decline is a choice. Success is attainable. And freedom is worth fighting for,” DeSantis says in the ad. “I’m Ron DeSantis, and I’m running for president to lead our Great American Comeback.”
Trump remains the undisputed frontrunner in an increasingly crowded field of Republicans vying for the party’s nomination in 2024. The latest Real Clear Politics average of opinion polls shows the former president commands the support of more than half of Republican voters, followed by DeSantis, on just over 20 per cent.
Other candidates and potential candidates, including Trump’s former vice-president Mike Pence, and Republican senator Tim Scott, trail in the single digits.
The Trump campaign pulled no punches in attacking DeSantis’s launch, issuing a statement on Wednesday: “Glitchy. Tech issues. Uncomfortable silences. A complete failure to launch. And that’s just the candidate!”
Trump was not the only DeSantis opponent to hit out at the governor over his launch. President Joe Biden posted a dig at DeSantis on Twitter on Wednesday evening while the social media broadcast was faltering.
“This link works,” Biden tweeted, directing people to donate to his own 2024 re-election bid.
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