- DeSantis’ controlled message and discipline are a major part of his brand.
- That was tested Wednesday when he chose a new venue to run the presidential race.
- As listeners flooded Twitter Spaces, Twitter Spaces crashed.
For the past two years, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has traveled back and forth between Florida and then across America, where he continued to get his message across and control the environment. He was rarely late for press conferences and political activities. Each time, he narrowed down to the same point, often criticizing President Joe Biden and preparing ready-made answers for the press, taking into account the latest news of the day.
But on Wednesday night, Twitter Spaces, the voice-only platform he chose to launch his long-awaited 2024 presidential campaign, was out of his hands. His discussion with Twitter CEO Elon Musk and entrepreneur David Sachs, described as “the first in social media history,” was delayed in chaos about 30 minutes after the site crashed. .
“There are so many people here that I’m afraid the servers are melting,” Sachs said. About 600,000 people were in the room at one point, but by the time the conversation ended, about 300,000 had joined and listened.
Once the technology really started to work, DeSantis pushed the point, repeating many of the positions he had already made in his stump speech on everything from Walt Disney World to immigration and cryptocurrency. He answered mostly friendly questions from a number of attendees, but no questions about former President Donald Trump.
All the while, the Twittersphere and rival camps remained focused on an early technical flaw that could embarrass Musk and DeSantis. #DeSaster started trending on social media platforms late in the evening.
“Technical glitches don’t bode well,” the Republican political operative texted the insider 10 minutes after the initial conversation. Conversations were filled with starts and stops, robotic music, and whispers.
Both the Biden and Trump camps have been on the offensive. The Biden campaign posted on Twitter, “THIS LINK WORKS,” and shared a link to a fundraising page. The Trump campaign has sent out numerous press releases criticizing Mr. DeSantis’ poor polling performance, accusing him of being a lifelong politician and part of the establishment.
“Tim Scott’s inauguration was the best inauguration of the week, even if the mic was broken (don’t pay the contractor, Tim!). Robs was a disaster! President Trump, using the nickname “Rob,” said after a typo in the Daily Mail referring to Mr. DeSantis a few weeks ago.
Long news profiles often define DeSantis in relation to Trump as:Trump with a brain And Trump”Without drama. ”
So Mr. DeSantis has adopted similar policies, and while he doesn’t back down when cornered, he’s also a cautious planner with little leak in his administration in Florida. He sometimes turns his militancy off when solemn, and knows how to keep important news announcements secret until he’s ready to share them. When he does, they often make national headlines.
The free-spirited Mr. Trump, on the other hand, is known for being impulsive, stating what he thinks on the spot when questioned, announcing big decisions on Twitter and making his aides panic.
On Wednesday, Mr. Sachs apologized to Mr. DeSantis for the technical issues and asked why he decided to announce with Mr. DeSantis instead of cable.
The governor said he wanted to “go against the crowd” rather than “go with the crowd,” then turned the conversation back to policy and how he hit back at federal health officials during the COVID-19 pandemic. I returned to the topic.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks to a crowd at the Adventure Outdoors gun store in Smyrna, Georgia, March 30, 2023.
AP Photo/John Bazemore
Ally of DeSantis: The Governor Destroyed the Internet
The DeSantis campaign attributed the difficulty to Mr. DeSantis’ overwhelming interest in the presidential race. “So much enthusiasm for Governor DeSantis’ vision of a Great American Comeback has literally confused the internet,” campaign spokesman Brian Griffin said on Twitter. “Washington is next. Online he raised $1 million in an hour…and more!”
The choice to launch the campaign on Twitter comes as the site has only been under Musk’s control for just seven months, while numerous job cuts have been made, and many Democrats have Given the site’s accusations of being rundown, it could have been considered gambling. more right wing.
Nearly a million people tried to invade the Twitter space, according to campaign manager Jenella Peck. said on twitter After finishing the phone call with Musk and Saks. “There were over 700,000 people in the room, and hundreds of thousands were trying to get in at first,” she wrote. “I had to move rooms.”
Presidential candidates typically choose the more traditional method of announcing their candidacy, holding public events, and interviewing cable news outlets. Trump himself kicked off his 2016 campaign by descending on the golden escalator at Trump Tower in New York, and kicked off his 2024 campaign at the gold-encrusted ballroom in Mar-a-Lago. bottom.
Sam Nambug, who worked on the Trump campaign in 2016, told insiders that DeSantis, a billionaire who is also the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is popular with conservatives, which is why DeSantis wants to work with Musk on the campaign. He said he still thinks it’s smart to launch. “There will be technical issues, but if they said there was Elon Musk, I would take that option,” he said. “It’s being recorded anyway.” The hashtag #DeSantis2024 also trended.
Mr. Nambug said the money raised will be used to fund the campaign’s ground campaigns in Iowa. For comparison, 2016 presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz of Texas said: collect a million dollars. “Everything Elon touches turns to gold,” Nunberg said.
After the discussion on Twitter, DeSantis turned to FOX News. He makes frequent guest appearances while mostly avoiding other networks. “Fox News never crashes during this interview,” show host Trey Gordy joked to DeSantis, who appeared on the show.
“This broke the Twitter space and we’re really excited about the enthusiasm,” DeSantis said before moving on to campaign messaging. On my next visit to Mark Levin’s show, Levin said there were technical issues towards the end of the show with so many listeners watching. Some of DeSantis’ answers were spotty towards the end of the discussion.
Despite technical issues, DeSantis said he would return to Twitter.
“It was fun and we should do it again,” DeSantis said at the end of the event. “This is a great platform.”