Fox News took a swipe at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and Twitter owner Elon Musk over the chaotic launch of a Twitter Spaces event that the governor used to announce his presidential candidacy.
“Amateur hour,” the banner headline on FoxNews.com read Wednesday evening. “Much hyped Ron DeSantis presidential announcement a disaster on Twitter.”
The network’s homepage also featured a bright red crawl graphic that ran across the bottom of its website with the words “PROGRAMMING NOTE: Want to actually see and hear Ron DeSantis? Tune into Fox News at 8 p.m.”
DeSantis was slated to sit with Fox host and former Republican congressman Trey Gowdy on Wednesday evening, immediately following his discussion with Musk.
The Twitter Spaces event, the first of its kind, got off to a rocky start with audio and connectivity issues delaying the discussion by more than 20 minutes.
Musk and moderator David Sacks, a fellow tech entrepreneur, could be heard on the feed saying “so many people” were joining the space that it was “crashing the servers.”
At its highest point, the space had just more than half a million listeners, a number that pales in comparison to the nightly prime-time shows on Fox.
Fox’s 8 p.m. hour had for the last six years been hosted by controversial host Tucker Carlson, who the network ousted earlier this month — a move that has resulted in the network experiencing a significant dip in ratings during that hour since.
Former President Trump, who will take on DeSantis in the GOP primary and who has relentlessly attacked Fox in recent weeks over its coverage of the Florida governor, mocked the rocky rollout on Twitter Spaces in a Truth Social post Wednesday.
“Wow! The DeSanctus TWITTER launch is a DISASTER! His whole campaign will be a disaster. WATCH,” the former president wrote.