"I'm running for president to lead America's great comeback," Republican Ron DeSantis said publicly announcing his 2024 White House candidacy in a video posted to his Twitter account Wednesday, May 24. .
Perceived as Donald Trump's main rival for the Republican nomination, the governor of Florida was then to speak in an interview with Elon Musk, the owner and boss of Twitter, live on the platform. But the discussion did not start on time: the billionaire's voice and that of the moderator, Republican businessman David Sacks, were audible but interrupted by long silences.
"We have a huge number of people online, so the servers are a little struggling to keep up," said Elon Musk. "We're reallocating computing capacity to handle the load, it's really crazy," he added before Twitter Space (the social network's audio lounge) picked up again.
Sarcastic reaction to Joe Biden's account
At the same time, Joe Biden's account sarcastically tweeted "this link works," with a link to his presidential re-election campaign site.
Some twenty-five minutes after the announced time, the conversation presented as "historic" by David Sacks finally began again.
Before this technical adventure, Ron DeSantis had descended into the arena by formally filing his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday.
The 44-year-old governor of Florida is seen as Donald Trump's main rival for the Republican nomination. His candidacy is extremely awaited by these Republicans who are looking for a solution other than the 76-year-old former American president, whose ideas Ron DeSantis shares but not the excesses. The winner of the primary will face, in November 2024, the candidate chosen by the Democratic Party – most likely Joe Biden.
Against "righteousness"
The choice of video format for a campaign launch is atypical. "This is the first time we're going to experience something like this on a social network," Elon Musk said, promising "real-time, unprepared questions and answers." This exchange should not, however, be perceived as sponsorship, pleaded the billionaire with ambiguous political positioning.
Former naval officer, Ron DeSantis gained popularity by multiplying the ultra-conservative blows on education or immigration. In the name of a battle against supposed "well-thinking", he has transformed his state into a laboratory of conservative ideas.
His path to the White House is littered with many obstacles. The governor, in whom many conservatives had placed their hopes for the presidential election after his triumphant re-election in Florida in November 2022, is now seriously behind Donald Trump – officially a candidate since November 16, 2022 –, according to numerous surveys. 'opinion. Polls that must be considered with caution as the ballot is still far away, but that Donald Trump happily shares on his network, Truth Social.
