A glitchy start to the Ron DeSantis campaign, Tim Scott fires back at “The View,” Vivek Ramaswamy takes on Target, and Nikki Haley gets a CNN Town Hall.
There’s no rest for the weary on the expanded presidential campaign trail.
Twitter, We Have a Problem
Just hours after filing his federal paperwork, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was set to announce his long-awaited presidential campaign on Wednesday when he hit a speed bump on the information superhighway. He was waiting in Twitter Spaces with outgoing Twitter CEO Elon Musk when the social network app crashed — repeatedly. It took about 20 minutes to fix the glitches, with Twitter officials eventually switching to a second hangout. The transfer reportedly cut the audience by hundreds of thousands of participants in the audio-only live stream.
DeSantis backers said the constant crashing was the consequence of a popular candidate.
“The servers are straining somewhat,” Musk said at one point.
DeSantis ultimately delivered the message he came for.
“I am running for president of the United States to lead our great American comeback,” the newly minted presidential candidate said.
He released a campaign video laying out the failures of the Biden presidency.
“Our border is a disaster. Crime infests our cities. The federal government makes it harder for families to make ends meet. And the president flounders,” DeSantis asserted. He added that “decline is a choice, success is attainable, and freedom is worth fighting for.”
“Righting the ship requires restoring sanity to our society, normalcy to our communities, and integrity to our institutions. Truth must be our foundation — and common sense can no longer be an uncommon virtue. In Florida, we proved it can be done,” the governor said.
Hitler, Satan and DeSantis?
Perhaps not surprisingly, former President Donald Trump was fast to attack DeSantis’ shaky launch. Frontrunner Trump, who has rolled up a huge lead in Republican primary polls to date, unleashed several videos following the Florida governor’s announcement. Trump’s social media accounts featured a parody video of DeSantis’ Twitter trouble showing the governor next to Satan, Adolf Hitler, and Democratic Party sugar daddy George Soros.
“I know Ron,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account. “The way he handled his announcement, he will handle the Country!”
Biden’s campaign had the same idea, tweeting out the Democrat’s campaign donation page and noting “This link works.”
‘Dangerous” and “Disgusting’
U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) was on the presidential campaign trail this week in western Iowa when he joined Fox News’ Sean Hannity to respond to another low blow by panelists on ABC’s The View.
Host Whoopi Goldberg suggested Scott, the only black Republican in the U.S. Senate, has “Clarence Thomas syndrome.” Thomas, a conservative U.S. Supreme Court justice, has been the target of attacks by the race-baiting left for years.
As Fox News reported, Goldberg’s co-host Sunny Hostin further claimed one of Scott’s “issues” is that he believes because he “made it” coming from an impoverished black family in the South, “everyone can make it.”
Scott told Hannity that the comments were “offensive,” “dangerous” and “disgusting.”
“When you tell young African American kids that there’s no chance to make it to the top unless you’re the exception that is a lie from the pit of hell,” said Scott, who announced his bid for the White on Monday from his hometown North Charleston, SC.
“It’s dangerous because kids today, they actually live down to the lowest level of expectations of their leaders. We need to tell kids the truth, that in America you can go as high as your character, your talent, and your grit will take you.,” Scott said. “If you want to live the American dream, work hard, put in the time, and all things are possible.
Taking on the Target ‘Tuck’
Anti-woke crusader and millennial Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, set to be in Iowa this weekend, took on Target and its new line of transgender merchandise. The mega-retailer recently launched “PRIDE,” an LGBTQ-friendly clothing line featuring “tuck-friendly” swimwear allowing certain appendages to be hidden away.
Target had sustained $9 billion in market value loss since its controversial clothing line rollout, tantamount to Bud Light’s Dylan Mulvaney marketing fiasco.
“That’s not a boycott, that’s just a response to a company that chooses to spit in their face. I have no doubt that many companies do find wokeness to be a good short-term trick,” Ramaswamy told Fox News this week.
The Ohio businessman said “if a company makes a conscious business decision to alienate a significant portion of its customer base, then it’s totally fair game for its customers to respond accordingly.”
Haley Next Up for CNN Town Hall
Former South Carolina Governor and GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley will participate in a CNN town hall in Des Moines, moderated by network host Jake Tapper. The event takes place at 8 p.m. Sunday, June 4, at Des Moines’ Grand View University.
“Iowa voters expect you to look them in the eyes and answer their questions, and that’s exactly what we’ve been doing,” Haley said in a statement. “We’ve done 22 events in Iowa already, and I look forward to another opportunity to talk to voters about how we can make America strong and proud again.”
Trump appeared on CNN’s much-maligned Town Hall earlier this month.
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Nikki Haley” by Nikki Haley. Photo “Vivek Ramaswamy” by Vivek Ramaswamy.
