“We had a huge audience, it did — it was the biggest [they] ever had. It did break the Twitter space, and so we are really excited with the enthusiasm,” DeSantis replied.
Florida’s governor also pushed for online donations to his campaign.
“If you make a donation, maybe we can break that part of the internet as well,” DeSantis added.
The interview, DeSantis’ first after officially entering the race, featured some of the Florida governor’s favorite talking points. He spoke of his legal battle with Disney, though he declined to provide specifics on how he plans to end that fight. As president, DeSantis said he would “lean in against woke ideology and against the sexualization of children,” and promised that he would ensure “that woke ideology ends up in the dustbin of history.”
Following the Gowdy interview, Fox News host Sean Hannity acknowledged that event was a bit of a bust.
“[DeSantis’] live Twitter announcement with Elon Musk — that did not go well after Twitter had one technical glitch after another, but Ron DeSantis is hugely popular,” Hannity said. “He’s an accomplished governor from the free state of Florida. He won reelection by a million and a half votes, which was a record, taking majorities in both red and blue counties. And as of now, DeSantis has a lot of ground to make up if he wants to challenge former President Donald Trump for the nomination.”
Despite the technological difficulties that delayed DeSantis’ highly anticipated campaign launch, the GOP contender’s campaign voiced optimism at the event’s reception.
“There was so much enthusiasm for Governor DeSantis’ vision for our Great American Comeback that he literally busted up the internet. Washington is next,” DeSantis’ press secretary Bryan Griffin wrote on Twitter, claiming the campaign had pulled in $1 million within an hour of the announcement.