Governor Ron DeSantis’s Twitter Space campaign announcement was supposed to be an “historic moment” according to host David Sacks. Instead, it was a “history screw-up,” in the words of Steve Bannon, as the stream failed to get going for at least 20 minutes.
Sacks, the billionaire Clinton donor hosting the DeSantis launch, began introducing Elon Musk and the Florida governor before Twitter crashed entirely. The stream also kicked users out of the Twitter app entirely.
As of 6:25pm, there was still no stream, with social media users mocking DeSantis and his team for a “failure to launch.”
Active users in the stream went from 600,000 to just over 100,000 on a second attempt.
Editor-in-Chief Raheem Kassam had something to say:
Guys – he fucking read an op-ed to 150K people on Twitter, instead of going on TV and drawing an audience of millions.
Forget DeSantis. It's over. Come home. It's time. pic.twitter.com/t3gZLOqYfe
— Raheem. (@RaheemKassam) May 24, 2023
So did our friend Harlan Hill:
Running for president via a voicemail message… that’s a first
— HARLAN Z. HILL 🇺🇸 (@Harlan) May 24, 2023
Banger:
You can't look short and awkward on Twitter Spaces.
Except somehow, DeSantis still managed.
— Raheem. (@RaheemKassam) May 24, 2023
Even CNN are dunking on him:
For context, more people watch CNN at 3am. https://t.co/xRqLM4SyQ3
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) May 24, 2023