'Failure to launch': DeSantis lost a big opportunity, pollster says
Pollster Lee Carter reacts to Ron DeSantis' polling against Trump in the presidential Republican field after announcing his candidacy
It was a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day for Twitter CEO Elon Musk.
Musk’s highly anticipated announcement on Twitter's "Spaces" feature that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis would formally enter the GOP presidential race turned into a debacle for the Tesla mogul on Wednesday.
Twitter's mobile app repeatedly crashed, and users complained they were unable to hear the broadcast. The issues came after a lengthy delay as it appeared the platform was completely overwhelmed for arguably the biggest Twitter event since Musk purchased the social media platform last year.
Musk has a staggering 140.8 million Twitter followers, but fewer than 300,000 managed to tune in for the DeSantis chat. The Twitter Space had 900,000 concurrent viewers at one point, according to screenshots of the space, but more than two-thirds bailed or were unable to listen because of the tech issues by the time DeSantis was able to begin.
TWITTER SPACES CRASHES REPEATEDLY DURING DESANTIS 2024 ANNOUNCEMENT
Elon Musk has 140.8 million Twitter followers, but fewer than 300,000 of them managed to tune in for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ much-hyped announcement. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
"We are kind of melting the servers," entrepreneur David Sacks, who was part of the event, said at one point.
"The servers are straining somewhat," Musk was heard saying.
The botched event was seen as a black eye for Musk as he aims to expand Twitter’s abilities. The teeny-tiny audience was mocked across the media landscape, with people using Twitter to bash the platform.
"This tech mess was completely no surprise by anyone who has used Twitter Spaces for such events," tech journalist Kara Swisher tweeted.
ABC’s Jonathan Karl said the event was "riddled with technical difficulties," and noted that only a "tiny fraction" of Musk’s followers on the platform managed to stick it out.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk had a rough night as his "Spaces" feature for Ron DeSantis' campaign announcement was plagued with technical issues. (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto, CARINA JOHANSEN/NTB/AFP via Getty Images (Photo illustration))
"Turns out Twitter Spaces isn’t the best place to make a major announcement," CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla wrote.
MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan said he found "lack of video for such a big event kinda weird," while progressive advocate Lindsey Boylan joked, "Twitter Spaces, the Fyre Festival of presidential campaign season. Everyone wants in now."
The event also featured random throat clearing, silence and widespread confusion among listeners.
Twitter responded with its customary poop emoji when Fox News Digital asked for comment via email.
DeSantis, who is seen as former President Donald Trump’s biggest threat among GOP presidential hopefuls, joined "Fox News Tonight" for a lengthy interview shortly after the Twitter event concluded.
DeSantis has repeatedly called Florida the place where "woke goes to die" and said as president, he would continue to take a firm stance in the culture war.
"The woke mind virus is basically a form of cultural Marxism. At the end of the day, it's an attack on the truth. And because it's a war on truth, I think we have no choice but to wage a war on woke," he said Wednesday on "Fox News Tonight."
Fox News’ Thomas Catenacci, Ashley Carnahan and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.