Fifteen minutes into what was supposed to be Ron DeSantis’s big Presidential Announcement on Twitter, the Twitter Spaces servers just completely melted down to the point that no one could speak, not even Elon. Elon managed to let us know that he was reallocating servers to try to handle the load, however, it wasn’t enough. So, at twenty-five minutes in, Elon had to end the first Space that had over 634,000 people in it and start again on David Sacks’s account. Later in the event, Elon said the server issue was likely because of HIS account and his over a million followers. He mentioned that his account, as big as it is, breaks Twitter routinely, so having Sacks host the event seems to have fixed the issue.
At 6:26 pm Eastern, DeSantis announced he is running for President to “lead America’s comeback.”
DeSantis said America’s decline is NOT inevitable, and we can change course. He wants to embrace American energy independence and says the borders must be respected. When it comes to enforcing laws, and rogue DAs, he said we can’t have the inmates running the place, and we need to start enforcing the law. He mentioned his time in the service and said that the military needs to quit talking about pronouns and focus on the mission. He brought up how unelected bureaucrats enforce regulations without any action from Congress and said that he wants to return the government to “we the people,” not the unelected bureaucrats. He then pointed to how well Florida is doing as a way to back up his promises.
He said Govt is NOT about entertainment or building a brand; it is about delivering results.
He promised to reverse Biden’s policies causing inflation, finish construction of the border wall, and get rid of not just any remaining covid mandates but also the ability for the government to lock us down and mandate actions again. He said he “will never surrender to the woke mob and will leave Woke ideology in the dustbin of history.”
The Q&A part of the event started with host David Sacks asking, why announce this on Twitter? DeSantis responded that when Covid hit, he decided to go against the grain, which led to showdowns with the Federal Government and Big Tech, which was in bed with the government at the time. He said now that Twitter is in the hands of a Free Speech advocate, it has become a better place for reaching out and getting the message directly to the people.
At that point, Elon chimed in with his best line ever, “Twitter was expensive, but Free Speech is priceless.”
DeSantis was asked about the NAACP travel advisory, claiming Florida was a dangerous place to be a minority. He said it was a “farce” and a political stunt. DeSantis said, “As an American citizen if you are uncritically accepting narratives spun by legacy media and left-wing groups, you are failing at your job of being a conscientious citizen.” He then pointed out that the head of the NAACP lives in Florida, and the board members take vacations there often and have a great time.
Elon then mentioned that this event was all new territory, bypassing the media and talking directly to the people. That doing so “empowers the people, instead of a very tiny elite cabal.”
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya asked DeSantis how he would reform the NIH, CDC, etc. DeSantis said first, we need an honest reckoning about what actually happened during the pandemic. If Florida had not stood in the way, we would have had rolling lockdowns for two years. He said all the agencies need to be cleaned out because narrative and politics take precedence over evidence-based reasoning. Dr. Bhattacharya followed up by mentioning his video with DeSantis about Covid that YouTube had censored. DeSantis responded that he is signing a Digital Bill Of Rights for Florida to bar the State Gov from interfering or colluding with Big Tech to censor speech. He said it is “unconstitutional for [the Federal Government] to be delegating speech restriction to a private company. You can not do indirectly what the Constitution would clearly forbid you from doing directly.”
Rep Massie talked about how Bank Of America voluntarily gave information about anyone who bought a hotdog in DC on Jan 6, overlayed that information with gun purchases, and handed the info to the FBI. He then asked DeSantis why is Congress so “feckless in reigning in the federal agencies” and what he would do to reign in the agencies’ overreach. DeSantis said, “Buckle up. The status quo is not acceptable.” He explained that it has gotten so bad because power has been handed to what is effectively a 4th branch of government. He said Congress should remove their funding and stop running the govt on autopilot. Congress should legislate, not just hand power to the agencies to make policy.
Sacks brought up the fight with Disney, which allowed DeSantis to discuss how the media is getting everything twisted. He said we believe injecting gender ideology into elementary schools is bad; Disney likes it. Disney postured and was outed for trying to inject matters of sex into programming for the youth. They were exempt from the law and had their own government. We were no longer comfortable with that, so we ended their self-government status. “The GOP taking Disney side are showing themselves to be Corporatists.” DeSantis pointed out that Disney wants their special privileges back, and “we don’t think they should be treated any differently from SeaWorld.” He said the media in Florida had hammered Disney for years over this, but because DeSantis is the one changing things, now the media is on Disney’s side. DeSantis said no one made Disney more money than him, because they could be OPEN during Covid thanks to the stand DeSantis took.
Sacks then asked DeSantis about the narrative that he wants to ban books. DeSantis responded that there is NO book banned in Florida; they just gave parents the ability to see what was being used in their kids’ classrooms, and parents objected to certain books which are too graphic for the 6 o’clock news - how is that ok for a 6th grader? On the racial history claims, Florida eliminated CRT in order to stop teaching 6 yr old kids that they are oppressed/oppressors. What is not talked about is that the same bill requires ALL the history to be taught without the CRT influence. He said, most recently, Miami-Dade County moved Amanda Gorman’s book of poems from Elementary school libraries to Middle school libraries, and the media claimed it had been banned. Miami-Dade had to hold a presser saying it wasn’t true.
Sacks then asked about immigration and the insanity at the border. “How would you address that?” DeSantis replied, shut down the border, do not entertain asylum claims from people coming illegally. They must apply for asylum back in their home or neighboring country. He says he would finish the border wall, put Remain in Mexico back in place, and go after the cartels.
Steve Deace asked how are you going to follow through and do what you say? DeSantis answered, “I don’t make promises unless I know I can follow through.” He then talked about leverage points in Article 2 of the Constitution. We need to use those leverage points to get things done, especially with respect to Mexico. He mentioned his response to Hurricane Ian. He says it took down a bridge to Pine Island and a road that locals were told would take six months to repair, but when he was asked to step in, he had the bridge reopened in 3 days and the road repaired in 2 weeks. DeSantis said, “Voters are sick of empty promises and want action.”
Chris Rufo asked, what is the culture war strategy for DC? DeSantis responded that while the media hated it when he took on DEI, they are out of step with most Americans. Regular people don’t want their kids to be “roadkill in some sort of woke Olympics” when trying to get into college, sports, etc. A big part of the problem is the Dept of Education’s accreditation scheme. He wants to get rid of the accreditation mafia and DEI. He claimed there are tools in the federal government that can be used to push back on this.
Our very own Dana Loesch asked about the growing threat to enterprise - debanking. She talked about gun dealers who had their ability to bank yanked because they sell guns. “What can be done about activist banks who are cutting off law-abiding businesses and citizens?” DeSantis responded thoughtfully, “This is something the GOP really isn’t paying attention to and needs to.” He mentioned signing a bill in Florida that bans Social Credit Score and gives protection from debanking. He said, “We will not be a free society if major financial institutions can do through the economy what people couldn’t do via the ballot box.”
Sacks then brought up the FCC’s attempts to regulate Crypto. DeSantis declared, “You have every right to use Bitcoin.” He went on to say that Washington doesn’t like it because they can’t control it. Congress hasn’t addressed it, and for the bureaucracy to do this on its own - that’s wrong. He does not want to control everything people do in the crypto space. Sacks then discussed the government’s flirtation with creating their digital currency. DeSantis said Florida was the first state to pass a law saying they would not recognize any Government Digital Currency. When the central authority has control of a digital currency, it’s way too scary and not good for a free society.
DeSantis ended the event by saying he would do this (Spaces) again.
Despite the Tech issues, this went off well. Elon pointed out, of course, it’s going to be imperfect because it’s not scripted, and the invitation is open to any other candidate who wants to do this.
Be sure to tune in to Dana’s show on Thursday, May 25, to hear her interview with GOP Presidential candidate Ron DeSantis.
Lorraine Yuriar is a wife, mother, and lifelong conservative, currently stuck in a very blue state.
Very informative. I saw Dana’s Thursday show on the First. I really felt the interview with Governor De Santis was awesome! I’m hoping we the people can get our great country turned around!
Thank you very much for this fine column, Lorraine. You help keep me informed on a regular basis.