DeSantis campaign rollout on Twitter Spaces plagued by technical glitches
Christopher Hutton
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Twitter owner Elon Musk’s interview with Ron DeSantis experienced technical issues as the Florida governor prepared to announce his run for president.
“The servers are straining somewhat,” Musk told an audience of hundreds of thousands of listeners at a Twitter Spaces hosted on Wednesday. More than 400,000 users attempted to tune in after 6 p.m. EST, only for it to crash suddenly. The Space shut down about 20 minutes after the initial launch, with a recording left on the server. In it, Musk and Sacks speak to each other but DeSantis fails to say a word. It isn’t until a second Space with a smaller audience was launched that the program was successful.
“Congrats on breaking the internet there,” Silicon Valley investor David Sacks told DeSantis after the footage restarted.
DeSantis was able to start his announcement speech officially by 6:26 p.m., nearly a half hour after the intended launch time.
Pro-Trump Republicans used the technical failure to slam DeSantis. “Failure to Launch,” tweeted the MAGA War Room account.
The Biden campaign used the mishap as a chance to fundraise. “This link works,” Biden tweeted with a link to the Biden campaign’s fundraising page.
DeSantis’s interview was intended to present an alternative to traditional media outlet interviews. The Florida governor is still scheduled to speak with Fox News on Wednesday night.