DeSantis’ launch marred by horrendous tech failures

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was set to announce his highly-anticipated presidential bid during a Twitter spaces session Wednesday.

Then Twitter broke.

The app repeatedly crashed Wednesday night as thousands of listeners attempted to tune in to hear the Florida governor announce he was entering the race for the GOP presidential nomination. Thirty minutes into the event, DeSantis was finally able to begin speaking.

The response on the social media site was swift.

President Joe Biden was quick to chime in, tweeting: "This link works," followed by a link to the president's campaign donation site.

A spokesperson for former President Donald Trump responded: “Glitchy. Tech issues. Uncomfortable silences. A complete failure to launch. And that’s just the candidate!”

The spectacle represented a major embarrassment for both DeSantis and Elon Musk, Twitter’s relatively new owner, one that could haunt the former as he embarks on a bid to win the GOP’s nomination and the latter as he tries to position himself as a political kingmaker in the new media landscape.

DeSantis was slated to do additional interviews on more traditional mediums Wednesday night, where he will likely face questions about his launch on Twitter.

When the event got up and running, DeSantis addressed his decision to make his announcement via the virtual platform.

“Well, when COVID [happened] I had to make decisions about, do you go with the crowd? Or do you look at the data yourself and cut against the grain. And I chose to do the latter,” he told David Sacks, the outspoken venture capitalist moderating the conversation.