Steve Bannon has launched a fiery attack on Ron DeSantis, branding the Florida governor’s presidential campaign launch on Wednesday a “clown show” and a “historic screwup.”
DeSantis’s 2024 announcement was made during a Twitter Spaces conversation with Elon Musk and Craft Ventures co-founder David Sacks. The event was marred with technical problems, with parts of the audio garbled and some users complaining the Twitter app crashed when they attempted to join. After about 20 minutes the stream cut out entirely, before relaunching a few minutes later.
Wednesday’s launch initiated the open battle between former President Donald Trump and the Florida governor, following months of shadow boxing between their supporters. Polling indicates that DeSantis is Republican voters’ second favorite 2024 presidential candidate after Trump, though his popularity has taken a hit in recent surveys.
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Bannon, who worked as Trump’s White House chief strategist in 2017, was damning about DeSantis’ launch when responding on his online show, Steve Bannon’s War Room.
He commented: “This is a clown show. If you’re going to launch, DeSantis, you got to launch. This is failure to launch. Coming back in rooms and not going in rooms, we’re busy people. We’re 20 minutes into the show, we’re 15 minutes into the show and I’m bored all ready.
Bannon during Desantis event: “This is a clown show. I got Elon mumbling – he’s on the spectrum. We got him mumbling. We got Desantis – who knows where Desantis is. I got David Sacks trying to tell me how historic this is. This is a historic screw-up.” pic.twitter.com/4PDn3JfjHh
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) May 25, 2023
“I get Elon mumbling, he’s on the spec [spectrum], we get him mumbling. I got DeSantis, who knows where DeSantis is, I got David Sacks trying to tell me how historic this is. This is a historic screw-up.”
A 31-second clip of DeSantis’ remarks was shared on Twitter by Ron Filipkowski, an independent journalist who claims to monitor “right-wing extremism.”
Newsweek has contacted DeSantis for comment by email.
After the initial Twitter Spaces tech issues had been resolved on Wednesday, DeSantis commented: “I am running for president of the United States to lead our great American comeback.”
The Florida governor praised Twitter owner Musk as a “free speech advocate,” adding: “What was done with Twitter is really significant for the future of our country.”
DeSantis later suggested the tech issues demonstrated the popularity of his campaign.
He said: “We had a huge audience. It was the biggest they’d ever had. It did break the Twitter space. And so we’re really excited with the enthusiasm, but ultimately it’s about the future of our country.”
According to Sacks, who co-hosted the DeSantis Twitter launch with Musk, it received 1.3 million views on the social media platform.
Trump responded to the troubled DeSantis launch with mockery on his Truth Social website. This included sharing an AI generated fake video that appeared to show DeSantis launching his campaign in Twitter Spaces alongside George Soros, Adolf Hitler and the Devil.
Soros, a billionaire businessman and philanthropist, has become a favored target on the right due to his support for liberal causes.
Separately Trump wrote: “Wow! The DeSanctus TWITTER launch is a DISASTER! His whole campaign will be a disaster.”
Trump has a habit of giving his political opponents insulting nicknames, and routinely referred to DeSantis as “Ron DeSanctimonious.”