A glitch in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 2024 Twitter debut distracted him from introducing himself as a serious contender to unseat former President Donald J. Trump.
The Florida governor’s comeback after months of declining polls was a highly anticipated moment, adding to the disappointment of his supporters after a 20-plus-minute Twitter glitch on Wednesday.
Despite all the media attention on the Twitter fiasco — the Daily Mail called it “De-Saster,” Fox News called it a “disaster,” Breitbart News called it “DeBacle” — Germany Mr. Santis appeared to later gain a foothold on the familiar broadcast of Fox News, a more traditional and effective way of communicating with primary voters. His presence was the first time he made a substantive case for what a DeSantis presidency would look like.
Still, his team was eager to put the night behind them. It highlights both Mr. DeSantis’ potential success as a candidate and a campaign that is still in the works, while coming under intense attack from the dominant Republican front-runner.
Here are five takeaways.
Taking risks on Twitter backfires
The delay is longer than some campaign speeches.
For more than 25 minutes, Twitter gasped out the grandiose declaration that Mr. DeSantis would run in 2024, before they pulled the plug and started over, with long dead air blasted by frantic, hot mics The whispering was interrupted.
A presidential proclamation is the rarest of opportunities. This is the moment when candidates can draw all attention to themselves and their vision. Instead, Mr. DeSantis became almost a panelist at his own event, sharing the stage with Elon Musk and his malfunctioning social media site.
Fox News once touted a banner headline on its website that featured a photo of Musk instead of DeSantis. “Want to actually see and hear Ron DeSantis?” Read the breaking news alert on the website. “Listen to Fox News.”
Even in advance, the decision to start his campaign with Mr. Musk on Twitter has drawn mixed reviews. Yes, it’s innovative — and the opportunity to reach a potentially massive online audience — but there are risks too.
The technically challenged results clouded some of Mr. DeSantis’ arguments and cost him audiences and potential donors. It’s a less-than-ideal first impression for a candidate whose promise of competence is the Republican selling point. Both Mr. Trump and President Biden have relentlessly mocked the rollout.
Mr. DeSantis raised $1 million in one hour, a sizable amount but well below the record for the president’s start, his aide said, without providing information on how many individual donors made small donations Details.
The Biden campaign is also looking to capitalize, buying Google ads that show Biden’s donation page to people who search for terms like “DeSantis disaster” and “DeSantis fail.”
educated right wing candidate
Discussions about DeSantis-Musk on Twitter sometimes get bogged down in super-online rights dead ends.
Here’s the highly ideological and eccentric message Mr. DeSantis delivered:
“Some of the problems with universities and ideological capture — it doesn’t happen by accident, you can trace it all the way back to the accreditation cartel. Well, guess what? To be an accreditor, how do you do that? You have to get the U.S. Department of Education approval. So instead of saying, ‘You’ll only get certified if you do DEI,’ you’ll have a certifier who says, ‘If you do DEI, we won’t certify you . want a color-blind, merit-based certification program.”
learn?
Mr. DeSantis has repeatedly emphasized his blue-collar roots. But it’s clear that Mr. DeSantis polls far better among college-educated Republicans than he does among those without college degrees, who are very supportive of Mr. Trump and make up a growing GOP demographic. Many rural bases. His campaign introduction night shows why that is the case.
The conversation turned to complaints about the horrors of The Atlantic and Vanity Fair, as well as discussions of the “debanking” of cryptocurrencies and “politically incorrect businesses.”
Later, in a Fox News interview with Trey Gowdy, Mr. DeSantis rattled off acronyms — ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance Investing) was just one — without explaining what they meant.
DeSantis is ready to hit Trump — only indirectly
Mr. DeSantis made clear on Wednesday that he was not yet ready to strike at Mr. Trump, but hinted at where he would aim once he did.
He went through Twitter Spaces sessions and two interviews — one with his former congressional colleague Mr. Gowdy on Fox News and the other with conservative host Mark Levin on radio — without speaking out about Mr. Trump. name. (He once said one line: “merit must trump identity politics,” the governor said in a Twitter conversation.)
But he often tries to contrast himself with the Nameless.
Mr. DeSantis said on Fox News that Mr. Biden was able to pull “pranks” on the southern border because there was no wall to protect it. Mr. DeSantis pledged to build a “complete” border wall – a rebuke of Mr. Trump’s failure to keep that signature promise.
Mr. DeSantis also previewed the set of attacks he expects to focus on on the campaign trail: Mr. Trump’s appointments in his first term.
Mr. DeSantis blamed the Federal Reserve — Jerome H. Powell, whom Mr. Trump has appointed to chair — for stoking inflation. He said he would fire FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, another Trump appointee, on day one. (A senior Trump adviser pointed out on Twitter that Mr. DeSantis publicly supported the selection of Mr. Wray at the time.)
Mr. DeSantis delivered his harshest attacks on Mr. Trump in his final moments with Mr. Gowdy, who asked him what he would say to candidates who might not want to debate. That was an apparent reference to Mr. Trump, who said he might skip a first Republican debate or two. DeSantis needed debate to have a breakthrough moment, and he called on people to get involved.
“No one is entitled to anything in this world, Trey, you have to work hard for it,” Mr. DeSantis said. “That’s exactly what I intend to do, and I think debate is an important part of the process.”
DeSantis speaks out as China hawk
Mr. DeSantis previewed his tough policies against the Chinese Communist Party. While Mr. Trump has focused on the trade dimension of the bilateral relationship during his presidency, Mr. DeSantis has spoken more broadly about countering China’s influence, territorial expansion and military ambitions.
On Fox News, Mr DeSantis called for a 21st century version of the Monroe Doctrine to counter Chinese influence in Latin America. The “Monroe Doctrine” of President James Monroe in the early 19th century warned European nations not to establish colonies in America’s backyard.
Mr DeSantis also said the US needed stronger partnerships with India, Australia and other allies to counter China’s expansion in the Pacific. He also called for the reshoring of key manufacturing – saying the US is too economically tied to China.
His remarks suggest that, as president, Mr. DeSantis will attack China more comprehensively than Mr. Trump did during his first term. Mr Trump spent the first three years of his presidency largely looking away from China’s military expansionism and human rights abuses as he sought to strike a trade deal with Beijing. Mr. DeSantis has said he wants to confront China on all fronts from the start.
DeSantis plans broad use of executive powers
Mr. DeSantis laid the groundwork for what his allies say will be one of his most important comparisons with Mr. Trump: his skill at using power effectively.
In his Twitter Spaces live chat, Mr. DeSantis spoke about his extensive record as Florida’s governor crafting conservative policies. He cited his talent for using government power for conservative ends. He said he had studied the constitution’s “different leverage points under Article 2” and would put that knowledge into practice if elected president. On Fox News, he reiterated his plan to use Article 2 to reshape the government.
Mr. DeSantis suggested he would be tougher on the federal bureaucracy than Mr. Trump. It’s part of one of his core arguments: Not only will he fight harder than Mr. Trump, but he’ll bring about sweeping change where the former president fell short.
In the Fox News interview, he described the FBI as one of many out-of-control federal agencies and said he would exert stronger control over the entire Justice Department.
He dismissed the idea that the president should treat the agencies as independent, saying that if, as president, he learned that FBI officials were colluding with tech companies — referring to administration officials asking Twitter to remove content deemed harmful — Then “everyone involved gets fired.”