Ron DeSantis news latest: Florida governor suffers yet another technical glitch during 2024 campaign run

Ron DeSantis began a whirlwind media tour around the launch of his 2024 presidential campaign with an interview on Fox News on Wednesday evening when the governor outlined his misconceptions about climate change.

Mr DeSantis was speaking to former congressman Trey Gowdy, a conservative Republican who himself is a climate change denier, in an interview with the conservative news network following his disastrous Twitter Spaces event minutes earlier with Elon Musk.

Gowdy began the conversation on the topic by bluntly noting that Florida had experienced “a number of hurricanes” — a statement of the profoundly obvious — before asking the governor for his views on climate change and the government’s role in addressing it.

John Bowden reports from Washington, DC.

Ron DeSantis suffered yet another technical glitch as he continued to plough ahead with his 2024 campaign run following Wednesday’s disastrous Twitter Spaces launch.

The Florida governor appeared on Newsmax on Thursday night to speak about his priorities as he hopes to get the Republican vote for the presidential race.

But, during his appearance – and in the midst of an attack on the NAACP’s travel advisory – the show suffered a technical problem, with the screen freezing.

This marks the second time in two nights that Mr DeSantis’ campaign launch has been plagued by tech issues after his hotly-anticipated launch fell flat on Wednesday night.

Andrew Feinberg reports on how the Florida governor failed to answer a direct question about Russia’s war on Ukraine during an interview with Trey Gowdy on Fox News.

Technological glitches launched a thousand memes before the launch of the DeSantis campaign.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis raised $8.2 million in his first 24 hours as a presidential candidate, his campaign said on Thursday.

A donor making calls in the room first disclosed that the campaign had raised $8.2 million, and the figure was confirmed by a spokesperson for Mr DeSantis Bryan Griffin, reported The New York Times.

The figure is more than the $6.3 million that president Joe Biden raised in his first 24 hours as a candidate in 2019.

It is also more than the $6.1 million raised by former Rep. Beto O’Rourke that same year.

It is also roughly double the $4 million that Trump’s campaign said it had raised in the 24 hours after his criminal indictment earlier this year.

Mr Griffin said to the outlet that the campaign was raising both primary and general election funds.

The campaign can raise $3,300 per donor for both the primary and general election.He did not specify how money was earmarked for use only in the general election, should DeSantis become the nominee.

It is also not clear how many donors contributed in the first 24 hours.

After a 30-minute delay caused by technological glitches with Twitter’s “Spaces” audio conversation system, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ much-hyped announcement of his 2024 presidential campaign kicked off with a billionaire praising another billionaire.

The first billionaire, venture capitalist and DeSantis booster David Sacks, opened the conversation with fulsome praise for Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX impresario who bought Twitter last year with the aim of allowing unfettered conversations by all sorts of right-wing characters who’d been banned for violating the site’s rules under its prior management.

Mr Sacks then turned to introduce Mr DeSantis, who he said first drew his attention when the Florida governor began attacking public health measures recommended by medical professionals at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

And with that, Mr DeSantis began making his pitch to voters — or at least the voters who are on Twitter and cared enough to listen.

Here are some key takeaways.

The new Elon Musk-owned version of Twitter helped Ron DeSantis launch his bid for the Republican presidential nomination on Wednesday.

Though it was marred by technical glitches and skewered by the candidate’s critics, the forum nevertheless underscored Twitter’s unmistakable shift to the right under Musk, who bought it for $44 billion and took over in October.

“The truth was censored repeatedly, and now that Twitter is in the hands of a free speech advocate, that would not be able to happen again on this Twitter platform,” Mr DeSantis said during the Twitter Spaces event.

“You can call me whatever you want just make sure you call me a winner because that’s what we’ve done in the state of Florida — and that’s exactly what we would do nationally, not only in the election but actually bringing all these great policies to bear” he said, without mentioning Mr Trump by name, in an interview with Fox News.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis has said that Donald Trump’s slew of attacks directed at him after he announced his bid for presidency shows that the former president knows that he can beat him.

“I think a lot of what he’s doing is showing everyone that he understands that I’ve got a good chance to beat him, because he doesn’t criticise anybody else now. It’s only me,” Mr DeSantis said in an interview with host Jack Heath on “The Pulse of New Hampshire”, reported Fox News.

“They wouldn’t do that if they didn’t think that I had chance because I think they realize that I am offering folks a record of achievement that’s second to none.”

John Bowden profiles the highest-profile Republican seeking to dethrone Donald Trump.