DeSantis was supposed to be the candidate in control. He glitched.
that more than 700,000 people had joined the virtual rollout — more than triple the 200,000-plus people in the room later in the discussion.“Glitchy. Tech issues. Uncomfortable silences. A complete failure to launch. And that’s just the candidate!” a spokesperson for the Trump campaign sent out to reporters.
By the end of the night, Trump’s campaign released a video comparing Trump’s announcement at Mar-a-Lago with the static and awkward beginning of the DeSantis Twitter event and a flurry of statements on everything from the Florida governor’s record to accusations his team swiped a line from a Trump State of the Union speech.
DeSantis’ original plan had been for him to do his first post-announcement interview on Fox News with Tucker Carlson, according to two people familiar with his plans. When the Fox News host was fired, the governor kept his commitment to the network. He appeared with fill-in host Trey Gowdy in the 8 p.m. hour although the cable news channel has seen evening viewership plummet since Carlson’s ouster.
Gowdy poked fun at Twitter’s technical problems early in the interview, but also covered substantive issues with DeSantis, like inflation, China, abortion and immigration. DeSantis said he would declare a national emergency on his first day in office and “mobilize all forces” to rebuild the border wall. He talked about his plans to fire FBI Director Chris Wray and reorganize the “weaponized” Department of Justice. Neither Gowdy nor DeSantis discussed Trump by name.
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