By Mark Gray
10:30pm PDT, May 26, 2023
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On May 24, Ron DeSantis formally announced that he's running for president of the United States. The Republican Florida governor chose to announce his candidacy with Elon Musk on Twitter Spaces, but the presidential campaign launch was plagued by technical glitches and the app repeatedly crashed as thousands of users logged on. According to Politico, 682,000 listeners were tuned in at one point, but the number mainly held between 200,000 and 300,000 listeners. DeSantis, 44, finally began speaking about 30 minutes into the event, which marked the the first time the audio-only Twitter Spaces feature has been used for a presidential launch. DeSantis' announcement has been widely expected for the better part of a year.
There's no question that Florida's CEO has become a brand name in America — he's also equally polarizing. After the announcement, several notable names reacted to both his candidacy and the technical glitches.
Keep reading to see how stars are reacting to DeSantis' launch and candidacy…
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"There's no two ways about it – Ron DeSantis' long-awaited presidential campaign announcement on Wednesday night was a disaster," Meghan McCain wrote in her DailyMail.com column. "Here's your dose of reality to counteract the media hysteria over DeSantis' big mistake last night. DeSantis is not going anywhere and it's a long campaign ahead… This is a serious campaign with serious cash. If they can learn from their mistakes, then the future looks bright. Now it's up to the voters not to lose sight on the big picture. It's Ron or bust."
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In replying to what major media outlets called the launch, Elon Musk replied, "I call it 'massive attention.' Top story on Earth today."
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"When the Ron DeSanctimonious facts come out, you will see that he is better than most Democrat governors, but very average, at best, compared to Republican governors." –Donald Trump
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"You knew there were issues. You knew that there were problems with the servers. Double check, make sure stuff works. Where's the common sense? I don't understand how you do this big announcement and you haven't checked to see if capacity can be met." –Whoopi Goldberg on "The View"
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"A #DeSaster of epic proportions: Ron's robotic rollout is just another reason why we don't have time to roll the dice on a swamp-controlled RINO." –Donald Trump Jr.
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"Poor poor mush- poor poor pathetic deathsantis ; these two may look like idiots and act like idiots – but don't let that fool you they really are idiots . Today the came together in common cause to fight the woke mind virus heroically FOR US – And also to bake chocolate cake in their minds …And for this they are ridiculed and called Nazis! The humanity !" —John Cusack
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"Today, #DeSaster is gathering lobbyists & millionaires at the Four Seasons (Hotel, not Landscaping) in Miami, to dial-up other lobbyists & millionaires for $$. You know who else started his campaign that way? Jeb [Bush]! Please clap." —Ana Navarro-Cardenas
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"President Trump went into the lions den and defeated CNN. Ron DeSantis read off a script and took questions from his own supporters." –Kimberly Guilfoyle
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"To be honest I was more interested in hearing from Elon than I was in hearing from Desantis and I know I'm not the only one. Just based on my show metrics—(YouTube segment views) whether I'm giving him credit or critiquing him, people are not interested when I cover Desantis." –Candace Owens
