Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday announced on Twitter that he is entering the Republican presidential primary race.
“I’m running for president to lead our great American comeback,” DeSantis said in a video released on Twitter prior to an audio-only discussion on Twitter Spaces with Elon Musk and David Sacks.
Technical problems delayed the start of the audio discussion by nearly 30 minutes, prompting President Joe Biden to tweet a link for fundraising for his campaign with the words, “This link works.”
Former President Donald Trump, DeSantis’ main opponent in the primary race, also poked fun at the botched launch, commenting on Truth Social, “Wow! The DeSanctus TWITTER launch is a DISASTER! His whole campaign will be a disaster. WATCH!! I know Ron. The way he handled his announcement, he will handle the country!”
Around 678,000 people initially tuned in to listen, but by the time the session resumed, around 300,000 listeners were reached, according to Reuters. During the discussion, DeSantic discussed various policy issues, including his commitment to “leave woke ideology in the dustbin of history.”
Sacks, who co-hosted the event, downplayed the technical hiccups.
“This was by far the biggest room ever held on social media,” Sacks tweeted. “Twitter performed great after some initial scaling challenges. Thanks Twitter Team for adapting so quickly to make history!”
Republican primary elections are scheduled to begin in 2024.
