Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign announcement Wednesday night was so marred by technical failures that it felt like a Zoom call crossed with a Space X launchpad explosion. The mess left top Georgia Republicans in wait-and-see mode before they decide whether to throw their support behind the Florida governor in the future.
“Well that was bad,” we heard from one.
Instead of a traditional speech or video announcement, DeSantis chose instead to kick off his presidential run with a live Twitter Spaces interview with Twitter owner Elon Musk and David Sacks, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and high-dollar donor to DeSantis.
Viewers were first greeted with a gray screen that read, “Details not available.” That eventually was replaced with a purple screen and Sacks saying, “Thank you for putting up with these technical issues. I think we’re definitely breaking new ground here.”
After more dead air and crosstalk, DeSantis eventually made it to the purpose of the evening. “I am running for president of the United States to lead our great American comeback,” he said.
At one point, as DeSantis’ voice came in and out, Musk could be heard saying in the background, “I think we’ve got a massive number of people online so the servers are straining a bit.”
DeSantis later joked on Fox News that his announcement broke the internet, but the clunky kickoff did not get a stampede of new Georgia support.
U.S. Rep. Rich McCormick remained the only high-profile elected official in the state supporting him so far, after coming out for DeSantis on Tuesday. Other high-profile leaders are so far sticking on the sidelines.
Although more than a dozen elected Republicans attended a DeSantis book signing and rally in Cobb County in March, they made clear at the time that they were only attending, not endorsing, so far.
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Credit: Christina Matacotta for the AJC
Credit: Christina Matacotta for the AJC
FIELD TRIP. Gov. Brian Kemp’s weeklong trip to Israel continued Wednesday with a visit to the headquarters of Caesarstone, the Israeli company with the largest investment in Georgia.
The countertop maker opened a plant in Richmond Hill in 2015 that now employs roughly 200 people. There’s now talk of a potential expansion. Caesarea, the seaside town home to remnants of Rome’s conquests two millennia ago.
Kemp and other state officials also spent time exploring the great hippodrome once home to chariot races and public tortures, and dined by the restored harbor built by King Herod.
The historic attraction wasn’t the purpose of the day’s visit, but it did happen on the one-year anniversary of Kemp’s own win over David Perdue in the GOP primary.
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Credit: Ben Gray for the AJC
Credit: Ben Gray for the AJC
GLOBAL CONSPIRACY. Meanwhile back in Georgia, one of Gov. Brian Kemp’s GOP primary challengers, Kandiss Taylor, nearly broke the internet with a video saying she’s not convinced the Earth is round — and that pro-globe propagandists are spreading propaganda to convince us all otherwise.
In an undated interview surfaced by Right Wing Watch Wednesday, Taylor told internet host David Weiss about the Earth’s shape, “I don’t know 100%, but more and more I’m like, it just doesn’t make sense.” Weiss is the host of the Flat Earth podcast.
“Everywhere there’s globes. You see them all the time. It’s constant,” Taylor continued. “My children will be like ‘Mama, globe, globe, globe, globe’ — they’re everywhere.”
She added: “That’s what they do to brainwash. For me, if it’s not a conspiracy, if it is real, why are you pushing so hard everywhere I go? Every store, you buy a globe, there’s globes everywhere. … Why? More and more I’m like, it doesn’t make sense.”
Taylor will be among the GOP district chairs heading up the Georgia GOP convention next month in Columbus since she is the newly elected 1st District chair for the state Republican party.
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Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
D-MAINOR. Be sure to read Mark Niesse’s profile of state Rep. Mesha Mainor, the Atlanta Democrat making major waves in Democratic circles for taking positions in stark contrast to the party line, especially on school vouchers.
Among many must-see details, Mainor told Niesse, “I’m not a puppet, nobody tells me to do anything.” She also said she may eventually run for state schools superintendent and has no plans to switch parties.
“Some of my Republican friends, they joke a lot, saying, ‘You should become a Republican.’ I’ve never thought about that. I want the Democrats to change.”
Some Democrats are eager for her to go, including state Sen. Josh McLaurin, D-Sandy Springs.
“Rep. Mainor seems to relish not just in bucking the party, but also sowing dissention and increasing disunity with Democrats, and Republicans couldn’t be happier about the way she does that,” he said.
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DIVIDED HOUSE. There were some raucous moments on the U.S. House floor Wednesday, including mocking laughter directed at U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
The Rome Republican was presiding over the House session when GOP Leader Steve Scalise and Democratic Whip Katherine Clark delivered dueling remarks on the debt ceiling. As one of the most junior members of the majority party, Greene is one of many who routinely take turns in the speaker’s chair for floor debate.
While Scalise and Clark accused the opposing party of blocking a debt limit deal, their members backed them up with cheers and jeers at the appropriate times.
But when a Democratic member yelled something out at Scalise, the GOP leader asked Greene to restore order and she banged the speaker’s gavel.
“The members are reminded to abide by the decorum of the House,” she said. But that only made Democrats erupt in laughter at Greene, who has a reputation for, well, ignoring the decorum of the House, including heckling President Joe Biden with shouts of “liar!” during the State of the Union address.
It took several more bangs of the gavel and statements of, “the House will be in order,” for Greene to get her colleagues to quiet down.
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Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
X-DATE. The finger-pointing on the debt limit includes members of both parties issuing warnings that the nation is coming close to its first ever default on debt, an event that could create an international financial crisis.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the federal government could run out of funds to fulfill its financial obligations as soon as June 1, but the “x-date” is a moving target that depends largely on the flow of money coming in and out of the nation’s coffers.
One Georgia lawmaker, U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde, doesn’t think things are as dire as Yellen has made them out to be.
He said the x-date has always been fluid and noted the government has taken cost-cutting measures intended to prolong its ability to pay bills when they come due. All the Biden Administration needs to do is stretch resources until June 15, the date businesses are due to pay quarterly taxes to the government, Clyde said.
“June 15 is one of the biggest tax revenue days of the year,” the Athens Republican noted.
U.S. House Republican Leader Steve Scalise announced that after votes today, lawmakers will travel home for their scheduled Memorial Day break. The House calendar has members off through June 5, four days after Yellin’s x-date.
If a debt limit deal is reached, lawmakers will get at least 24 hours notice before they are required to travel back to Washington for votes and 72 hours to review newly drafted legislation, meaning a deal theoretically needs to happen on “x-minus-4 date.” By our calendars, that’s today.
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Credit: Doug Mills/The New York Times
Credit: Doug Mills/The New York Times
TODAY IN WASHINGTON:
- President Joe Biden will deliver remarks at the White House announcing his nomination of Air Force Chief of Staff General Charles Q. Brown Jr. to serve as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
- The U.S. House will vote on legislation to reclassify fentanyl as a Schedule 1 drug, with stricter criminal penalties for possession and trafficking. Members are expected to then be dismissed for a planned recess.
- The U.S. Senate is out for the week.
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Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
VOTE WINNER. Our colleague Mark Niesse reports that Georgia voters had the highest turnout rate of any state in the South in the 2022 midterm elections, despite some new limits to drop boxes and shortened absentee voting windows. From Niesse:
About 52% of Georgia's voting-eligible population cast ballots in November, the top rate in the South and the 13th-highest in the nation, according to figures compiled by the United States Elections Project at the University of Florida. Nationwide, 46% of eligible voters turned out…
Overall, 3.96 million Georgians went to the polls, about the same number as in the previous midterms four years earlier. But the turnout rate decreased, from 54% to 52%, because more people were registered in 2022.
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Credit: Rodney Ho/AJC
Credit: Rodney Ho/AJC
HAPPY TRAILS. We’re wishing Fox 5′s Dale Russell a successful next step after he announced that he’s retiring from Fox 5-Atlanta’s “I-Team” after more than 38 years with the station.
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Credit: Courtesy photo
Credit: Courtesy photo
DOG OF THE DAY. It’s time to meet Charlie Marbles Bluestein, the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel of our very own Insider, Greg Bluestein.
Charlie Marbles’ many hobbies include crashing AJC Zoom calls and barking at visitors and delivery workers. And today, he’s one of the many wishing his person, Greg, a very happy birthday.
Congrats to Charlie for finding a terrific family to take care of — and to Greg, for another trip around the sun.
Send us your animals of any political persuasion — dogs, cats, geese, etc., to patricia.murphy@ajc.com, or DM us on Twitter @MurphyAJC.
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AS ALWAYS, Jolt readers are some of our favorite tipsters. Send your best scoop, gossip and insider info to patricia.murphy@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com and greg.bluestein@ajc.com.
