DeSantis’ 2024 bid mocked as Musk’s Twitter event melts down

If Ron DeSantis was hoping for a flashy entry in the 2024 race for the White House, Wednesday’s Twitter Space event hosted by CEO Elon Musk and moderator David Sachs was not it.

The long-awaited official launch event of DeSantis’ 2024 campaign ended in an unrelenting mess riddled with technical issues that was immediately ridiculed by his political enemies.

The governor spoke for a little over an hour before leaving to participate in a technically superior interview on Fox News Channel; The Twitter phenomenon began late, with the first iteration of the chat room crashing and restarting.

President Joe Biden’s campaign staff didn’t miss an opportunity to stab the governor in the wound, tweeting: “This link works”, and providing a portal to a donation page.

The second iteration fared better, but quickly became equally focused on the Elon Musk Lovefest as it was on the governor of Florida, who found himself touting his record in the state at every opportunity while other speakers focused on national issues – including, in particular, the alleged censorship of conservatives on social media platforms. He found no opportunity to adequately hit former President Donald Trump, who meanwhile was bashing the governor in a series of press releases and truthful social postings.

Mr. DeSantis’ launch event was attended by Congressman Thomas Massey, the governor’s supporter in the House of Representatives. Still, Mr Massey couldn’t help ending his remarks not with an impassioned call to support his friend, the governor, but with starstruck praise for Mr Musk – including the upbeat declaration that he’s Tesla are the owners of.

The governor has spent a notable portion of his time defending his war against the Disney corporation, which is becoming increasingly costly to the state of Florida, with the company suing him and accusing him of usurping his office. Discriminated against his business while applying. a political agenda. The controversy erupted after Disney Corporation recently announced it was ending a major business development project in Orlando, which did not escape Mr. DeSantis’ attention on Wednesday evening. He complained that the once-planned project was completely unrelated to the state’s dispute with Disney’s self-managed business district, and speculated without any real knowledge that the company had fallen into hard financial times, which was forced to close the project. was needed.

His remarks came as all parties mocked the governor’s belly-flop in the 2024 race; His main rival for the GOP nomination, Donald Trump, dubbed the incident a “failure to launch” Mr. DeSantis in a press release from his campaign, while Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gleefully said that her own non-campaign- Related is the session between us. The Twitter space presence of Mr. Musk and Mr. DeSantis was easily surpassed by Twitch streamers Hasnabee and Pokemon.

Even frequent Musk fanboy “catered2”, a hero of the right-wing Twittersphere, panned the incident, such as “being forced to listen to a conference call that you can’t wait to close.” can not do”.

“Ron DeSantis’ failed campaign announcement is just another example of why he’s not up to the job. The stakes are too high, and the fight to save America is too important to gamble on a first-timer who clearly Not ready to prime.” Time. President Trump is a proven leader who will be ready on day one to transform the country,” said a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign.

The bloodshed did not stop here. Mr. DeSantis did not even receive a friendly welcome on Fox News’ website, where he was leaving only minutes later for an interview that dubbed the incident “amateur hour.”

The conservative news site declared in a headline, “The much-hyped Ron DeSantis presidential announcement on Twitter is a disaster.”

Overall, the reception to the event was indeed a disaster – even if the candidate’s performance left little room for criticism. The governor prepared and prepared to hit his points on the rare occasion he actually got to make them, and there was no awkward gaffe that may have hounded his likely general election opponent, Joe Biden.

But the actual event itself, much of which was being handled by the DeSantis campaign, was at times hardly focused on the candidate. Compounded by the audio-only nature of the discussion, it led to a series of branding and showmanship failures that quickly added up to a messy mess that, potentially, detracted from the campaign launch of longtime candidate Sen. Tim Scott. Was impressive. In week.

Mr. DeSantis entered the 2024 race as the only Republican polling in double digits in the matchup against Donald Trump and others. But Wednesday night’s wheezing race by Florida governor on the track didn’t give the impression of a candidate capable of maintaining a sustained campaign against the former president, who has already set his sights directly on his rival.