Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks at a conference titled Celebrate the Faces of Israel, Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem, April 27, 2023.
Maya Alleruzzo AFP | Getty Images
Florida Gov.’s presidential campaign announcement plans. Ron DeSantis was derailed Wednesday night by a massive technical glitch on Twitter that temporarily prevented him from declaring his candidacy.
“The servers are having a little trouble,” Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, was heard saying on the app’s live audio stream where he and DeSantis were supposed to have a conversation that included the governor’s first verbal announcement on his bid for the White House.
Musk’s comments came amid crashes, feedback glitches and audio failures that held up the conversation on Twitter’s Spaces feature from the start for about 25 minutes past its scheduled 6 pm ET start time .
Musk and investor David Sacks, an ally of both men, started a new Twitter Spaces webcast after the original failed. But technical issues also arose in that stream, including in the middle of DeSantis’ remarks.
DeSantis filed federal papers that day, officially putting him in the running for the Republican presidential nomination. His campaign also released a video in which DeSantis said, “I’m running for president to lead our great American comeback.”
But it was DeSantis’ unusual decision to make a major announcement on an audio-only Twitter tool that drew the most attention.
The aborted first Spaces event listed more than half a million listeners before it was eventually abandoned.
When he was finally able to speak without interruption, DeSantis began by echoing some of what he said in the pre-recorded video his campaign released moments later.
“Well, I’m running for president of the United States to lead our great return to America,” DeSantis said on Twitter. He pointed to issues including crime and economic distress and criticized President Joe Biden for lacking “strength” and taking “cues from the woke mob.”
The mishap comes as Musk is pushing to boost Twitter’s revenue. Earlier this month, he hired former NBCUniversal ad chief Linda Yaccarino to replace him as CEO of the social media platform. Musk bought Twitter in October for $44 billion. He has since cut nearly 80% of the company’s staff.
After the event, Musk tweeted: “All presidential candidates are welcome on this platform.”
A DeSantis campaign official tried to turn the sputtering event into something positive, telling NBC News, “Governor DeSantis broke the internet — which should tell you all you need to know about the strength of his candidacy… .!”
But DeSantis’ critics and his top political opponents pounced on the glitch fest.
“His collar is too big!” Trump wrote on Truth Social, his own Twitter-like social platform.
Meanwhile, Biden’s official Twitter account used the opportunity to solicit contributions to his re-election campaign.
“This link is working,” Biden tweeted with a URL linking to his ActBlue donation page.
