Not long after Ron DeSantis’ 2024 presidential bid announcement on Twitter was marred by technical difficulties, the Florida governor appeared on Fox News Tonight—where guest host Trey Gowdy joked about his less-than-perfect campaign rollout.
“I can’t promise you that I won’t crash, but Fox News will not crash during this interview,” Gowdy told DeSantis, who, after a nearly half-hour delay, finally managed to make his speech in a Twitter “Spaces” event, alongside notable figures like site owner Elon Musk, billionaire David Sacks, and Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie.
“Gov. DeSantis, if you broke Twitter, my daughter and the Kardashians are going to be very upset with you. I don’t know if that’s what happened with Elon Musk or not. Maybe you just had a big audience,” Gowdy continued.
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DeSantis used the set-up as an opportunity to try and save face.
“We had a huge audience. It was the biggest they had ever had,” he claimed. The number of people listening in on Twitter during DeSantis’ speech dropped from 500,000 to around 250,000, later rising to roughly 300,000.
“It did break the Twitter Space, and so we are really excited with the enthusiasm, but ultimately it’s about the future of our country,” DeSantis said.
The problems with DeSantis’ campaign announcement promptly drew the attention of the White House’s social media team, with President Joe Biden sending out a tweet that linked to his re-election fundraising page with the caption, “This link works.” Musk himself later appeared to agree with a tweet calling Biden’s quip a “solid shitpost.”
