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2024 Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis told Newsmax host Eric Bolling that he’s “not a big social media guy” and “would rather watch” cable news “than be on some app,” following his disastrous presidential campaign launch on Twitter this week.
During an appearance on Newsmax’s The Balance, Thursday, DeSantis said Twitter “were very confident that they had the ability to get a lot of people” for the event.
“They were anticipating a lot of people, but there were more people that tried to sign up than even what Twitter had anticipated,” he claimed. “I was just in a room in Florida, so I didn’t really know necessarily what was going on.”
However, DeSantis defended his controversial decision to launch the campaign on Twitter, arguing that he ultimately got more attention than he would have if he had simply delivered a traditional in-person speech.
DeSantis said that while he “would have asked them to have maybe more capacity” for the event on Wednesday, which was plagued with technical difficulties, he did not regret the decision overall.
Asked by Bolling whether he had heard from News Corp executive chairman Rupert Murdoch, or Murdoch’s sons, over his decision to launch the campaign on Twitter rather than Fox News, DeSantis said, “No, we didn’t, but look, I get it. I mean, I understand that different folks have had views on all that stuff.”
“I’m actually not a big social media guy,” DeSantis went on to admit. “I would rather watch you than be on some app, but it is important for a lot of people.”
DeSantis said that given “the free speech component” of Twitter, and how the platform became “an example of conservatives having a voice again and fighting back against the entrenched legacy media” following Elon Musk’s purchase, his decision to launch the campaign on Twitter was significant.
The online campaign event was ridiculed by President Joe Biden, Fox News, and DeSantis’ Republican primary rival, former President Donald Trump.
Watch above via Newsmax.
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