Ron “Don’t Say Gay” DeSantis’ presidential announcement started with static. The combative Florida governor announced his candidacy for presidency Wednesday on Twitter Spaces, only for the streaming tool to crash.
Talk about a bad omen.
While more than 500,000 people tuned into the opening minutes of DeSantis’ botched virtual event, only 163,000 listeners remained when DeSantis started talking…after 25 minutes. Twitter owner and loathsome billionaire Elon Musk was on the call with DeSantis, along with right-wing tech entrepreneur David Sacks.
“That was insane, sorry,” said Musk.
It was also a complete joke. Within minutes of DeSantis’ flop, Joe Biden‘s team tweeted a fundraising message with a simple tag line: “This link works.”
As of Thursday morning, more than 11.4 million people have viewed Biden’s tweet–far more than the number of folks who stayed with DeSantis throughout his rocky campaign kick-off.
“Dark Brandon” wins again.
— Yasmine Mary, ARNP-FNP-C (@yazzy1967) May 24, 2023
But it wasn’t just Biden who poked fun at DeSantis’ disastrous rollout. Fox News, which now seems to view Twitter as an emerging right-wing competitor, lambasted the flailing governor for his botched announcement.
Later in the night, DeSantis appeared on Fox News for an interview with former South Carolina congressman Trey Gowdy, who assured him the network “wouldn’t crash” during their segment.
Donald Trump and his team also feasted on DeSantis’ technological troubles.
“Glitchy. Tech issues. Uncomfortable silences. A complete failure to launch. And that’s just the candidate!” a Trump spokesperson texted reporters.
The disgraced ex-president himself also weighed in with a slickly produced, if not incredibly bizarre, parody of his own.
Unfortunately for DeSantis, his Twitter interview didn’t really improve once he started speaking. His speech was monotonous, bouncing between topics such as education, immigration and bitcoin.
If voters needed more evidence that DeSantis is completely out of touch, his supporters gathered Wednesday night for a launch party at the über-swanky Four Seasons in Miami. Nothing says “ordinary American” like an event at a luxurious five-star hotel!
In many respects, DeSantis’ flop of an announcement was the perfect crescendo to his gaffe-filled shadow campaign, in which he committed countless social faux pas.
Ever since winning reelection in November, the 44-year-old DeSantis has taken a hard turn to the right, supporting a large swath of legislation that targets LGBTQ+ people. He’s signed a law outlawing gender-affirming care for minors, and an anti-trans bathroom bill that allows adults to be criminally charged if they don’t use the bathroom that matches the sex they were assigned at birth. Florida also has a new anti-drag law that bars minors from attending drag shows with “lewd” performances.
Maybe most notably, DeSantis has championed “Don’t Say Gay” legislation, which prohibits discussion of sexual orientation and gender ideology throughout all grade levels. He’s been mired in an embarrassing feud with Disney, his state’s biggest tourism attraction, due to the company’s opposition to the law. (Last week, Disney abandoned a $1 billion developmental project in Orlando, which would’ve brought 2,000 jobs to the region, with $120,000 as the average annual salary.)
But even DeSantis’ extreme far-right agenda couldn’t save him from widespread mockery on both sides of the aisle Wednesday. As it turns out, his campaign announcement with Musk was an even bigger bleep show than expected.
Scroll down for more reaction to DeSantis’ horrible night…
dsk569
So the idiots making fun of Twitter and musk are tweeting about it hence supporting Twitter and musk …, GET OFF TWITTER!
RIGay
Yup. The only way to put out this dumpster fire is to not give it oxygen in the first place.
abfab
Twitter is for twats. I wish for its demise, it’s been said many times before but Q must be in bed with them….
Mister P
He’s going to move to the center very soon to try to appeal to more people and hope that everyone forgets what a radical, far right, homophobic, fascist he is.
abfab
But he’ll never get rid of the smell.
Fahd
I hope there is a very contentious Republican primary – after all, there are now several formidable candidates, not. Still, the more they fight among themselves, the better off we’ll all be.
DeSaster has no skills as an orator and he looks dumpy on TV. He’s running to the right of you- know-who, and now with his making Disney an enemy, he can’t even claim to be you-know-who without the baggage. (Disney cancelling a $1 Billion investment in your state is “baggage”. )
Some people – I guess you call them – are going to support DeSantis, but not enough for him to get the Republican nomination, and he’s demographically inappropriate for the vice-presidential nomination. Sorry Florida, you’re not getting rid of him so easily. Can’t wait for his desasterous results from the South Carolina and Florida primary.
abfab
So if this shmuck gets 18 years, how many years should the POS get he was defending and also, the true leader of Jan 6……
Stewart Rhodes, the founder and leader of the Oath Keepers, was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Thursday for leading a far-reaching plot to keep then-President Donald Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election.
The sentence is the first handed down in over a decade for seditious conspiracy.
CNN
Kangol2
18 years should be the minimum for the cult leader goon Don the Con too!
abfab
According to Sky News, in 1993, Rhodes accidentally dropped his .22 caliber pistol and shot himself in the eye. While this led to him using a prosthetic eyeball, he sometimes also chose to wear an eye patch, which distinguished him among the crowds at various political rallies.
Dude not only shoots himself in the foot, he also takes out one of his eyes. I can see why Repugnicans love their guns!
Kangol2
My pardons to the late Cole Porter:
“It’s De-Saster”
“So please don’t be glum, my chickadee
And when I laugh at ya, just say to me
“It’s delusional, It’s demented, it’s disordered, It’s disturbed,
It’s disarranged, it’s discombobulated, it’s deranged,
It’s De-Saster!”
abfab
”Bigots do it
Racists do it
Even uneducated cretins do it
Let’s do it
Let’s vote them out!”
cuteguy
Deathsantis needs to stick to what he knows, eating pudding with his fingers. He’s no leader. Even Mickey Mouse made him look like a b!tch
abfab
Q: What does Rhonda Santiss and a bottle of beer have in common?
A: They’re both empty from the neck up.
scotty
aslo FAIL.
Invader7
Awesome. DeSatan’s DISASTROUS Musk sponsored Twitter Spaces debut FIASCO portends his AMATEUR presidential campaign. He is NOT presidential by ANY means. He has MANY exact parallels to ADOLPH HILTER. Firstly compare their eyes : the cold blue color and the tightly wound SOCIOPATH /PSYCHOPATH pupils. And go from there. His whole ANTI-AMERICAN agenda is gonna haunt him right to the primary and general elections. And rightfully so. He’s a disaster . And the idiots who vote for and support him are gullible morons !!
Invader7
Maybe Mr In Dire Need of a Personality Transplant will drop dead. Or be outed as a pedophile or caught having an affair with an underage boy or girl and busted with a PILE of Cocaine & Meth & lots of creepy Porn or a Combo of all the above . And/or his lame ass dumpster fire of a campaign flames out.
Invader7
A governor who pisses off the BIGGEST employer and TAX Payer in his state DESERVES to be trolled ,criticized and ridiculed repeatedly. Aren’t the repubs Pro Business and Tax neutral? EXCEPT when it collides with their HYPOCRITICAL /TWO FACED /Ever CHANGING , FLUID / weird /creepy “values” !!!