DeSantis launch hits tech issues on Twitter

STORY: Florida governor Ron DeSantis officially joined the race for the U.S. presidency on Wednesday...

He released his first campaign video setting up a direct confrontation in the Republican contest with his one-time ally, former President Donald Trump.

“… and I’m running to lead our great American comeback.”

However, the rest of the launch did not go smoothly.

Twitter repeatedly crashed during a highly anticipated live audio chat between DeSantis, and Twitter CEO Elon Musk.

The audio cut out and some users were dropped, at one point it appeared that over half a million people tried to join.

Elon Musk blamed the problems on the number of listeners on Twitter Spaces.

“We are reallocating more server capacity to be able to handle the load here. It's really going crazy.”

The same service handled 3 million listeners for Musk’s interview with the BBC last month.

Twitter outages have become more common under Musk’s ownership, as he laid off thousands of staff including software engineers.

Former president Donald Trump was gleeful over DeSantis’ shaky Twitter launch, posting on his Truth Social account it was “a disaster”.

In the months leading up to his presidential bid, DeSantis has toured the country, visiting states such as Iowa and New Hampshire that will hold early nominating contests, boasting of his record as Florida’s governor…

"We will never, ever surrender to the woke mob. Our state is where woke goes to die.”

Which includes severely restricting abortions in the state and making it easier for residents to carry concealed weapons.

He also kept up a protracted battle with Disney over its criticism of laws that ban the teaching the gender identity concepts in public schools.

But DeSantis’ decision to wait to enter the race may have cost him in the polls, as Trump has had ample time and space to attack DeSantis, while some allies may have grown frustrated waiting for the Florida governor to step into the ring.

Besides DeSantis and Trump, other declared Republican candidates include Nikki Haley, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and Tim Scott, a U.S. senator from South Carolina.