Ron DeSantis has launched his 2024 presidential campaign with a Twitter announcement plagued by technical glitches.
He filed a declaration of candidacy with the US federal electoral commission on Wednesday and then announced his move in an online chat with Twitter chief executive Elon Musk.
But the audio stream crashed repeatedly, making it almost impossible for most followers to hear the 44-year-old Florida governor most of the time.
He said: “American decline is not inevitable – it is a choice.
“And we should choose a new direction – a path that will lead to American revitalisation.
“I am running for president of the United States to lead our great American comeback.”
Mr DeSantis becomes the latest in a crowded Republican contest to decide whether the party will move on from Donald Trump in 2024 as it aims to retake the White House from Democrat Joe Biden.
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Those already in the GOP field include Trump, former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, South Carolina senator Tim Scott, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson.
Former vice president Mike Pence is also expected to announce his candidacy in the coming weeks.
Trump is leading in early polls but Mr DeSantis has generated some interest among Republican primary voters by presenting himself as a younger and more electable version of the 76-year-old former president.
In a chat with Mr Musk that lasted for more than an hour, Mr DeSantis did not mention Trump, but said: “Buckle up when I get in there, because the status quo is not acceptable”.
However, those trying to listen to his announcement had to battle being kicked off the feed, hearing microphone feedback, hold music and other issues.
Mr Musk blamed the popularity of the event and “straining” servers, adding: “You can tell by the mistakes that it’s real.”
But Mr DeSantis’s rivals were less generous, with Mark Harris, lead strategist for Ms Haley’s campaign, saying: “Failed soft launch? Check. Failed announcement? Double check.
“We look forward to Ron DeSantis’s failed campaign.”
Trump adviser Chris LaCivita added: “This is a disaster – not surprising.”
Hours before Mr DeSantis announced his candidacy, Trump said on social media: “He desperately needs a personality transplant and, to the best of my knowledge, they are not medically available yet.”
Under Mr DeSantis’s watch, Florida has passed numerous so-called anti-woke laws, such as the heavily-criticised “don’t say gay” bill and a ban on teaching critical race theory.
He signed a law allowing Florida residents to carry concealed firearms without a permit, backed measures that weaken press freedom, and took control of a college he said was indoctrinating students with leftist ideas.
The Sunshine State has also been given new restrictions on abortion with a ban on terminations after six weeks– before most women even realise they are pregnant.
Mr DeSantis also removed an elected prosecutor who had vowed not to charge people under the abortion restrictions or doctors who provide gender-affirming care.
At least 51 people have died after heavy rain caused flash flooding, with water bursting from the banks of the Guadalupe River in Texas.
The overflowing water began sweeping into Kerr County and other areas around 4am local time on Friday, killing at least 43 people in the county.
This includes at least 15 children and 28 adults, with five children and 12 adults pending identification, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said at a news conference.
In nearby Kendall County, one person has died. At least four people were killed in Travis County, while at least two people died in Burnet County. Another person has died in the city of San Angelo in Tom Green County.
Image: People comfort each other in Kerrville, Texas. Pic: Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle via AP
Image: Large piles of debris in Kerrville, Texas, following the flooding. Pic: Reuters//Marco Bello
An unknown number of people remain missing, including 27 girls from Camp Mystic in Kerr County, a Christian summer camp along the Guadalupe River.
Rescuers have already saved hundreds of people and would work around the clock to find those still unaccounted for, Texas governor Greg Abbott said.
But as rescue teams are searching for the missing, Texas officials are facing scrutiny over their preparations and why residents and summer camps for children that are dotted along the river were not alerted sooner or told to evacuate.
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AccuWeather said the private forecasting company and the National Weather Service (NWS) sent warnings about potential flash flooding hours before the devastation, urging people to move to higher ground and evacuate flood-prone areas.
Image: Debris on the banks of the Guadalupe River in Hunt. Pic: AP Photo/Julio Cortez
Image: An overturned vehicle is caught in debris along the Guadalupe River. Pic: AP
The NWS later issued flash flood emergencies – a rare alert notifying of imminent danger.
“These warnings should have provided officials with ample time to evacuate camps such as Camp Mystic and get people to safety,” AccuWeather said in a statement that called Texas Hill County one of the most flash-flood-prone areas of the US because of its terrain and many water crossings.
But one NWS forecast earlier in the week had called for up to six inches of rain, said Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management.”It did not predict the amount of rain that we saw,” he said.
Officials said they had not expected such an intense downpour of rain, equivalent to months’ worth in a few short hours, insisting that no one saw the flood potential coming.
One river near Camp Mystic rose 22ft in two hours, according to Bob Fogarty, meteorologist with the NWS’s Austin/San Antonio office. The gauge failed after recording a level of 29.5ft.
Image: A wall is missing on a building at Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas. Pic: AP/Julio Cortez
Image: Bedding items are seen outside sleeping quarters at Camp Mystic. Pic: AP/Julio Cortez
Image: A Sheriff’s deputy pauses while searching for the missing in Hunt, Texas.Pic: AP/Julio Cortez
“People, businesses, and governments should take action based on Flash Flood Warnings that are issued, regardless of the rainfall amounts that have occurred or are forecast,” Jonathan Porter, chief meteorologist at AccuWeather, said in a statement.
“We know we get rain. We know the river rises,” said Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, the county’s top elected official. “But nobody saw this coming.”
Judge Kelly said the county considered a flood warning system along the Guadalupe River that would have functioned like a tornado warning siren about six or seven years ago, before he was elected, but that the idea never got off the ground because “the public reeled at the cost”.
Image: A drone view of Comfort, Texas. Pic: Reuters
Image: Officials comb through the banks of the Guadalupe River in Hunt, Texas. Pic: AP/Julio Cortez
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was asked during a news conference on Saturday whether the flash flood warnings came through quickly enough: “We know that everyone wants more warning time, and that is why we are working to upgrade the technologies that have been neglected for far too long.”
Presidential cuts to climate and weather organisations have also been criticised in the wake of the floods after Donald Trump‘s administration ordered 800 job cuts at the science and climate organisation NOAA, the parent organisation of the NWS, which predicts and warns about extreme weather like the Texas floods.
A 30% cut to its budget is also in the pipeline, subject to approval by Congress.
Professor Costa Samaras, who worked on energy policy at the White House under President Joe Biden, said NOAA had been in the middle of developing new flood maps for neighbourhoods and that cuts to NOAA were “devastating”.
“Accurate weather forecasts matter. FEMA and NOAA matter. Because little girls’ lives matter,” said Frank Figliuzzi, a national security and intelligence analyst at Sky’s US partner organisation NBC News.
Musk had previously said we would form and fund a new political party to unseat lawmakers who supported the bill.
From bromance to bust-up
The Tesla boss backed Trump’s election campaign with more than a quarter of a billion dollars, later rewarded with a high profile role running the newly created department of government efficiency (DOGE).
Image: Donald Trump gave Musk a warm send-off in the Oval Office in May. Pic: Reuters
In May Musk left the role, still on good terms with Trump but criticising key parts of his legislative agenda.
After that, the attacks ramped up, with Musk slamming the sweeping tax and spending bill as a “disgusting abomination” and Trump hitting back in a barbed tit-for-tat.
Trump earlier this week threatened to cut off the billion-dollar federal subsidies that flow to Musk’s companies, and said he would even consider deporting him.
Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ has passed and he’s due to sign it into law on Independence Day. Mark Stone and David Blevins discuss how the bill will supercharge his presidency, despite its critics.
They also chat Gaza and Ukraine, as Donald Trump meets with freed Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander and talks to Vladimir Putin.
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