Ron DeSantis 2024 Presidential Campaign on Twitter Plagued by Technical Difficulties

DeSantis’ bid to be the Republican Candidate has gotten off to a shaky start last night when his Twitter audio livestream constantly malfunctioned….

The 44-year-old tried something different from other candidates who are announcing their run by hosting it on Twitter’s audio livestreaming service. However, it didn’t seem to go to plan.

There was a lot of stopping and starting and awkward silence in a moment that was supposed to highlight DeSantis’ political career.

The Florida governor didn’t manage to make his announcement until 20 minutes into the live stream with a panicked Elon Musk in tow, trying to troubleshoot the stream as more technical stumbles appeared throughout.

DeSantis’ main political rival Donald Trump made a statement towards the Republican hopeful jeering at the failed livestream attempt, calling it a ‘DeSaster’.

‘Wow! The DeSanctus TWITTER launch is a DISASTER! His whole campaign will be a disaster. WATCH!”

'Rob,' My Red Button is bigger, better, stronger, and is working (TRUTH!), yours does not! (per my conversation with Kim Jung Un, of North Korea, soon to become my friend!)," - Donald Trump

The technical errors ranged from the sound turning off, delayed audio, and the stream crashing several times. Musk made the excuse that the servers were overwhelmed by the sheer size of people tuning in to listen to the announcement. More than half a million viewers tuned in. The stream was run by Musk, DeSantis, and Paypal’s COO David Sacks who commented when DeSantis finally started the stream: “I think you broke the internet there.”

“I am running for president of the United States to lead our great American comeback.. We know our country’s going in the wrong direction. We see it with our own eyes. And we feel it in our bones.”

“My pledge to you is this: if you nominate me, you can set your clock to January 20th, 2025, at high noon because on the west side of the US Capitol, I will be taking the oath of office as the 47th president of the United States.. No excuses, I will get the job done.”- Ron DeSantis

One of the main talking points throughout the stream was Twitter itself and if it can take center-stage more for right-wing commentators and politicians; despite the poor handling of DeSantis’ presidential bid announcement.

CNN Media Reporter, Sara Fischer said: “The fact that he’s (DeSantis) is going to Twitter, it also suggests and caps off a week of a lot of conservative movement to Twitter… you’re gonna start to see a lot more momentum flock there from conservatives, if you’re Rupert Murdoch it’s a scary time.”

Nonetheless, DeSantis took the botched livestream in his stride and referred to Sack’s comment that his presidential announcement ‘broke the internet’.

Other points he focused on were his controversial handling of the Covid-19 pandemic in Florida and his more recent dispute with Disney. He said: “My view was I had to look out for the people I represented, prefer protecting their jobs over trying to safeguard my own political hide, but it was very, very lonely in a lot of those decisions.”

What DeSantis has to do next, to get one step closer to the White House, is win over the Republican voters. He has quite a tough battle ahead of him as Donald Trump is looking to head back to the White House in 2025. Not only does he have to sway his own voters but also try to surpass incumbent President Joe Biden and stop him from having a second term.