DeSantis Launches '24 Campaign in Tweet Before Twitter Spaces Event Crashes

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' Twitter Spaces 2024 GOP presidential campaign launch failed, but he tweeted his announcement before the technical issues and embarrassment for the candidate and Twitter CEO Elon Musk.

"I'm running for president to lead our Great American Comeback," DeSantis tweeted Wednesday before his Twitter Spaces campaign presentation, which started with technical difficulties and was crippled for more than 20 minutes after the scheduled launch.

"We need the courage to lead and the strength to win," he said in the video posted on Twitter.

The original Twitter Spaces link ended after 21 minutes and 17 seconds. Musk tweeted another event, but it was not immediately available.

The event kicked back up at an undisclosed location on Twitter, with DeSantis reading his opening remarks off what sounded like a prepared script.

"I am running for president," DeSantis reportedly said. "We should choose a new direction."

DeSantis took a shot at former President Donald Trump and the Republican Party's past losses in a repeat of an oft-used attack line, saying voters should not look backward by himself pointing at the past.

"There is no substitute for victory," he said. "We must end the culture of losing that has infected the Republican Party in recent years.

"The tired dogmas of the past are inadequate for a vibrant future. We must look forward, not backwards."

DeSantis repeated what he tweeted in his ultimately Twitter Spaces prepared remarks.

"American decline is not inevitable, it is a choice," he said on the glitchy stream, racing through his conservative accomplishments. "And we should choose a new direction — a path that will lead to American revitalization

"I am running for president of the United States to lead our great American comeback."

The 44-year-old Republican earlier revealed his decision in a Federal Election Commission filing before an online conversation with Twitter CEO Elon Musk.

"Ron DeSantis's campaign announcement is a historic train wreck. #Trump2024," Trump's MAGA Inc. campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt tweeted Wednesday.

Trump also trolled his rival.

"'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!)," Trump posted on Truth Social, adding another post mocking the failure to launch.

The attempts to restart the event overshadowed the announcement itself.

"We've got so many people here that I think we are kind of melting the servers, which is a good sign," said David Sacks, a venture capitalist and close friend of Musk, while attempting to start the event.

The Spaces session resumed about 25 minutes after it was supposed to kick off, with about 241,000 users tuning in to listen.

"There is so much enthusiasm for Gov. DeSantis' vision for our Great American Comeback that he literally busted up the Internet," DeSantis press secretary Bryan Griffin told Newsmax in a statement.

"Washington is next."

But another former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, a Trump endorser, was not convinced. While he praised DeSantis, Huckabee told Newsmax's "Rob Schmitt Tonight" that presidential candidates are supposed to be ready to deliver big announcements without a hitch, and DeSantis' campaign showed it might not be ready to take on a former president in the GOP primary.

"Failure to Launch," "Crashed" and #DeSaster were among the trending Twitter topics in the U.S. during the chat session.

In between crashes, President Joe Biden poked fun at the shaky rollout of DeSantis' presidential bid by tweeting out a fundraising appeal: "This link works."

DeSantis is considered to be Trump's strongest Republican rival even as the governor faces questions about his conservative policies, his campaign-trail personality, and his lack of relationships across the Republican ecosystem. Still, he has generated significant interest among GOP primary voters by casting himself as a younger and electable version of the 76-year-old former president.

Later, DeSantis was holding a donor event at the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Miami on Wednesday.

DeSantis joins a field that also includes: former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Former Vice President Mike Pence is also considered a likely presidential candidate but has not yet announced a bid.

DeSantis and Trump have much in common. DeSantis, who likely would not have become the Florida governor without Trump's endorsement, has adopted the former president's fiery personality, his populist policies and even some of his rhetoric and mannerisms.

DeSantis, just six months ago, won his reelection in Florida by a stunning 19 percentage points — even as Republicans in many other states struggled. He also scored several major policy victories during the Republican-controlled legislature's spring session.

Hours before the announcement, Trump argued in a social media post that "Ron DeSanctus" cannot win the general election or the GOP primary because of his previous votes in Congress on Social Security and Medicare.

"He desperately needs a personality transplant and, to the best of my knowledge, they are not medically available yet," Trump added. "A disloyal person!"

Trump allies dispatched a truck outside DeSantis' planned donor meeting running an attack ad describing him as "a swamp creature." The Democratic National Committee sent another truck warning of DeSantis' "extreme MAGA agenda."

Information from The Associated Press and Reuters was used in this report.