He's in.
The Florida
governor, Ron
DeSantis, officially
kicking off his bid for the White House.
And he did it on Twitter
There is no substitute for victory.
We must end the culture of losing
that has infected the Republican Party
in recent years.
The tired dogmas of the past
are inadequate for a vibrant future.
We must look forward backwards.
Now, during his appearance on Twitter.
DeSantis went on to talk
about his policies in Florida,
to brag about the ones that target
education, books, race and gender.
He owns them.
He also repeatedly railed
against the traditional media
But this evening's
rollout on Twitter
did become with a technical issue
and a crash.
The event was delayed
with those technical difficulties.
In fact,
this is what people heard
when they logged on at 6 p.m.
Eastern, which was the advertised
start of the announcement
Let's see.
So we are.
Yeah, like so
just to simplify it.
Well, it kept getting cut off
by the time it started
DeSantis made a joke
that he broke the Internet.
Biden's campaign
well made light of DeSantis
Tech troubles, tweeting this link works.
And then the link went to a Biden
fundraising page.
Meanwhile, Trump is watching the Senate
this closely.
He spent the day
tearing into the Florida
governor posting polls
attacking DeSantis and his record.
Our Steve King
Tornoe has spent years
covering DeSantis,
former house representative
to now governor of Florida.
And of course, steve,
you know him
better than many covering him.
And he joins me now from Miami.
So what more are you hearing,
Steve, from the DeSantis
announcement tonight and about
why they did it in this way?
Well, Erin, they wanted
to be unconventional
and have an announcement
unlike any before.
They certainly got that.
There was so much trouble
just getting this event off the ground
for 25 minutes.
The event was mired in glitches
and they blamed the overwhelming interest
in this.
But, you know, this was Elon Musk's baby
this is his Twitter.
And yet they could not host it.
But even when DeSantis spoke,
it was a very different speech
than what we've heard
from other candidates
who have announced so far.
He didn't really offer
much of a vision for the country.
Instead,
he really focused on the problems
that he has seen with the country
under Joe Biden
and the problems
he has seen in the Republican Party
under Donald Trump.
Though he did not call Trump by name.
And then he issued a call for Republicans
to get behind him in 20, 24
Listen to what he said
and how he put that their call to them
to voters who are participating
in this primary process.
My pledge to you is this
if you nominate me,
you can set your clock
to January 20th 2025 at high noon
because on the west side of the U.S.
Capitol,
I will be taking the oath of office
as the 47th president
of the United States No excuses.
I will get the job done.
Now, when I jumped on the air with you,
the event was still going on,
but they were having a Q&A
between Elon Musk
and Donald
and me,
Ron DeSantis, and also David Sachs
was hosting the event.
They were
trying to explain
the glitches to the audience.
And I think that is going to be
the overwhelming takeaway
from this event.
At least that's what it's been so far.
It's completely
overshadowed the announcement,
but to scientists
is now a good candidate for president.
He will be running
in a Republican primary
against Donald Trump
and several other candidates,
and those candidates
are already starting to pile on
and go after him.
And you got to imagine
that is going to continue
after tonight's rollout.
It certainly is right.
And of course, you know,
he was
clearly going to be a candidate, right?
But now it's formal.
You know,
we're going to see whether things
change in polling and otherwise.
Steve, thank you very much,
reporting from Miami.
And I want to go now
to Dan Eberhart and DeSantis
megadonor David Urban
Trump 2020
senior campaign
advisor and Ashley Allison,
the former
national coalition's director
for Biden-harris 2020.
So Dan
I mean I know
obviously you're going to have
I have heard good things here right
you're a major donor here.
What do you make of DeSantis
doing this on Twitter?
How do you think he did
Well, I think he did well.
And I think it shows
look, he's
got everybody's attention, Biden, Trump
and all these followers,
for my understanding.
Look,
you know,
DeSantis said he broke the Internet,
but look
what happened tonight, Erin,
is he laid a cornerstone
for a new conservative movement
and he brought new,
new people into the process
by doing it on this platform.
And he showed that
he's a bold leader
and he's not just going to do things
the same old way
that all these other candidates are doing
when they announce.
David, what do you think?
I mean, Steve
saying that the focus really
he talked about what
he's done in Florida.
He talked less about what he sees
kind of future projection
for the country.
But he emphasized,
you know, it sort of seems his
he can get things done.
Yeah.
So listen, I live here in Florida.
I think Ron
DeSantis has been an incredible governor,
great leaders, done a great job.
But I don't know
what the political equivalent
for rapid unscheduled
disassembly would be.
But I think that what we just
witnessed on this launch,
if Governor DeSantis
sort of just gone to the ballroom
there
and done an announcement,
he'd have had every major network
covering it.
It would have been
you know,
it accomplished a much bigger objective
and then doing what he did.
And it just seems like
now no one's going to focus on
actual the message or what he said.
It's going to be all about this
this this bumbled
launch, which is which is
deprive them of a real opportunity.
All right.
Because obviously,
he could have done that.
And then, you know,
you posted on Twitter,
Ashleigh, tonight's
event was called
the first in social media history
by the moderator.
And it was indeed that right
there,
there were all those technical issues
that you heard David talking
about how they may overshadow
the actual message.
The audio going in and out
took a while to get it started.
Elon Musk, though, is still singing
its praises here he is
there's only
so much you
can actually put in a newspaper
or magazine.
And there's only one thing
you really put on the cover of magazines
so that whoever's deciding that is
is deciding
to not talk about other things.
Whereas with a public digital town square
like we have here,
it's possible for the public to
choose the our