The chaotic announcement of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ candidacy for the US president, broadcast live on Twitter on Wednesday, gave his opponents a boost and strained his start to the campaign.
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Donald Trump’s main opponent first posted a video on Twitter in which he promised to “lead America’s big comeback.”
The governor was then scheduled to participate in a live exchange with Twitter boss Elon Musk, in which he was to explain the rationale behind his candidacy. However, the event, attended by hundreds of thousands of people, did not go as planned at all. Many technical problems hampered the broadcast of the show and prevented the candidate from speaking out.
Ron de Santis, Trump’s contender for the Republican nomination, was scheduled to declare himself the candidate on Twitter Spaces.
It’s a major failure: live bug, long minutes of silence, Musk says servers are rowing.
If it doesn’t want to… 💀pic.twitter.com/hfyJBYF72s
— Francois d’Estais (@fdetais) May 24, 2023
“Thank you for your patience,” hurried Elon Musk, trying to get the chaos under control.
“Technical issues. Strange silence. A total failure,” a spokesman for Donald Trump told AFP.
The devil and Adolf Hitler interfere
Former US President Donald Trump used this opportunity to thwart his opponent in the Republican primary.
The latter posted a parody of the ad on Instagram, in which we see Ron DeSantis interacting with Adolf Hitler, the devil, the FBI and lobbyist George Soros, who is often targeted by the far right.
In another video posted to Donald Trump’s account, there is a montage of a Space X machine exploding, with images saying “Ron 2024.”
The situation also made current President Joe Biden’s clan react.
“This link works,” reads Joe Biden’s Twitter account, with a link directing users to his fundraiser.
The 80-year-old politician will stand for re-election.
The divided republican clan
Several Republican voters condemned Donald Trump’s behavior.
“Now is not the time to pit conservatives against each other! DeSantis did nothing wrong. He’s a fantastic governor,” commented one woman.
Screenshot from Instagram (realdonaldtrump)
“Stop acting like a kid! “It only harms the Republican Party at a time when we MUST win the presidency,” wrote one netizen. Lead this campaign with dignity and may the best man win. This behavior doesn’t help you. He harms the party and the country.”
Screenshot from Instagram (realdonaldtrump)
“DeSantis has my vote,” responded another user. You can’t control what comes out of your mouth, which keeps Democrats from voting for you. If you want to win, you have to charm both sides.
Screenshot from Instagram (realdonaldtrump)
With information from AFP