DeSantis to announce for President today

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) will announce publicly his campaign for President in a “Twitter Space” interview with Elon Musk.

Ron DeSantis to announce

Ron DeSantis and Elon Musk have separately confirmed that the Florida governor will announce his entry into the Presidential primary race for 2024. The two will be on a Twitter Space tonight at 6:00 p.m. EDT.

The announcement itself surprised few people. Two weeks ago the governor leaked plans to run for President – without forming the usual exploratory committee. Laura Loomer has repeatedly predicted (some would say warned) that the governor would run for President.

The recent amendment of Florida’s Resign to Run statute, to say it does not apply to candidates for President or Vice-President, cannot be coincidental. Loomer has also criticized the governor for “campaigning on the taxpayer’s dime.”

Laura Loomer has her own preference: Donald Trump. Polls in fact show Trump consistently beating a likely field of Republican contenders with clear majorities, or supermajorities. Other polls show Trump winning against Biden – and DeSantis losing.

Fox News reported yesterday that the governor released a video, which his wife posted to Twitter.

CNAV has covered DeSantis recently, and offered the criticism that not all of his policies bring tangible results. He is hot and heavy in a legal war with The Walt Disney Company, a war that started with his Parental Rights in Education Act.

The Vanity Fair piece

Bess Levin at Vanity Fair reacted in deep anger. This page – which apparently exists only on a Wayback Machine competitor – contains an article with an inflammatory title.

Report: Ron DeSantis Will Formally Announce His 2024 Bid With Elon Musk, Because Apparently David Duke Wasn’t Available

David Duke sought the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1988; contemporary reports accused him of running that campaign to scam donors. He is better known as a former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, and founder of a “National Association for the Advancement of White People.” His name still turns up search engine references, mostly to what others say about him.

Concerning the Vanity Fair article, the author seems more concerned with Elon Musk than with Ron DeSantis. Apparently the David Duke comparison was not to DeSantis at all, but to Musk. As further support, she criticized Musk a month earlier on a variety of grounds. Some of these grounds are remarks he made that have since proved true. Others are allegations that have a slim basis in the public record and border on libel. In the recent article, Levin accused Musk of “turning Twitter into a safe haven for hate speech.” Meaning that Twitter no longer practices – at least to the extent it once did – the censorship that made it infamous.

For his part, Musk laughed the whole thing off.

David Sacks, the accountholder to whom Musk was replying, will moderate tonight’s Twitter Space.

Other reaction

On Twitter itself, reaction is mixed. Here is a sample:

Another user suggested Donald Trump ought to appear on a Twitter Space with Musk. Musk appeared receptive to the idea.

He might in fact be more than receptive. At least one other observer has speculated that Musk is trying to goad Trump into returning to Twitter as an active participant.