Fiasco. Disaster. Technological catastrophe. What was scheduled as a triumphant entry by Governor Ron DeSantis into the race for the White House ended amidst strong criticism and mockery of the candidate’s launch, which tries to dethrone Donald Trump in the Republican Party.
An unprecedented election presentation on Twitter was complicated by technical problems and caused a deep despair of the protagonists and ridicule of a large part of the public, by Trump and even by President Joe Biden himself.
If what the governor of Florida was looking for was to be talked about throughout the United States, he succeeded, but certainly not in the way he imagined. For months, he had been expected to formally enter the Republican Party’s domestic race for the 2024 presidential election, following his state’s landslide victory last year. But he delayed his announcement of him waiting for the best moment.
The strategy began on Wednesday with the formal presentation of the papers before the electoral authority, then continued with a video and the main course was reserved for the afternoon: a new launch on “Twitter Spaces” with a chat with billionaire owner Elon Musk and another tech financier.
But the speech was full of flaws. Possibly because the system crashed due to the amount of people, the live chat started after about 20 minutes of silence and failed boot. “We have a large number of people online, so the servers are a bit saturated,” Musk was overheard saying.
“We’re reallocating server capacity to handle the load here, it’s really crazy,” explained the tycoon, who slashed his headcount when he bought the social network.
hoax on the web
As that went on, memes featuring Elon Musk’s failed rocket launches raged, as Trump’s son Donald Jr tweeted a pun on the candidate’s last name that quickly became a trend: “#DeSaster.”
Joe Biden, who is seeking presidential re-election, mocked the glitches by wryly tweeting, “This link works,” with a link to his fundraising page.
Donald Trump joked on his Truth Social Network, “My red button is bigger, better, stronger and it works,” referring to a pun he once played on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
When the landscape finally normalized, the audience, which was 600,000 at the beginning, had decreased to about 100,000.
“I’m running for president of the United States to lead our great American comeback,” the beleaguered candidate introduced himself. From there, everything was more boring. DeSantis read a presentation and answered a few questions between awkward silences.
Meanwhile, the Fox chain was delighted: “Disaster,” headlined its website. Additionally, she described the interview on Twitter as “amateurish” and invited DeSantis to watch hours later on the conservative channel, where the governor had an interview that ran on normal tracks, with a host.
What the polls say
DeSantis is trailing in Republican polls while the former president leads him by more than 25 points. But experts estimate that it is still too early and so the governor has a chance to return in the party as he is considered by many to be “a Trump with a brain”.
And most importantly, he has money because the Grand Old Party establishment, tired of the ex-president’s temper and conduct, supports him and donors too, who have already contributed an unprecedented $110 millioneven before it’s officially launched.
Lawyer, Iraq veteran and politician who started his career from the bottom up as a city councilor, he is conservative or more than the tycoon, but presents himself as a family man, focused on management and free from the scandals and trials of the former president of orange hair.
And, above all, DeSantis swears he has the ability to win Biden in the presidential elections, after the Republican defeat in politics and the weak performance in the legislatures last year.
“If you nominate me, I promise you that on January 20, 2025, at noon, I will be the guy on the west side of the Capitol, left hand on the Bible and right hand raised, taking the oath as the 47th president of the United States,” he said. said in the Fox interview.
His reasoning is understandable. Trump is no longer an “outsider” and is a controversial character who has lost the last two elections. DeSantis, 44, has a very tough internal race, but in the general election he could generate greater expectations in the face of a moderate electorate who doubt Trump’s morality and the 80-year-old Biden’s ability to govern.
ultraconservative platform
During interviews on Twitter and Fox, DeSantis exploded with his well-known ultra-conservative views. Total war on all progressive culture. Fierce fight against illegal immigration, against the LGTBQ and African-American community pushing for a ban on sex education and racial theory in schools.
Rejection of the “politicization of the climate”, curbing dependence on China and “returning to values” of the military institution, among others. He proclaims it will depict “facts about fear, education about indoctrination and law and order about disorder and riot.”
But beyond his ideas, which can seduce Trump’s base, DeSantis He has a charisma problem. It feels boring and stuffy and it is light years away from Trump’s media management, who with his confidence – and rudeness – managed to captivate the public. His wife, a TV presenter, could help reinforce this point.
DeSantis faces the challenge of closing the gap with Trump, but without openly arguing with the tycoon because we must not forget that millions of people voted for him. In fact, his campaign slogan is “America’s Great Comeback,” just like Trump’s “Make America Great Again.”
The former president tells him he’s “ungrateful,” and DeSantis subtly counters, “Governing is not entertainment.” And he hits Trump where it hurts the most, highlighting his latest presidential loss to Biden.
When asked by the interviewer if he minded that Trump gave him derogatory nicknames, DeSantis replied with a smile: “You can call me whatever you want, I don’t care. But you could call me “Winner”.
B. C
Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.