‘I Welcome Support From African Americans’: DeSantis Responds To Hint From Elon Musk About 2024

Nicole SilverioJune 15, 2022

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis responded to Elon Musk’s hint about supporting him in 2024.

Musk tweeted Wednesday that he is leaning towards supporting DeSantis for president in the next election. He voted Republican for the first time by casting his vote for Texas Representative-elect Mayra Flores in Tuesday’s special election.

“So what I would say [is] that I’m focused on 2022, but with Elon Musk what I would say is I welcome support from African Americans. What can I say?” DeSantis said at a press conference Wednesday.

Musk was born and raised in South Africa and immigrated to Canada in his late teens. He attended Queen’s University in Kingston, one of Ontario’s top universities, before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2002. (RELATED: Elon Musk Indicates His Political Views Haven’t Changed, Liberals Have Just Gone Way Too Far To The Left)

The tech billionaire said he planned to vote Republican in 2022, saying the Democratic Party is controlled by the unions and by trial lawyers during his appearance on a May 17 “All In” podcast.

“I might never have voted for a Republican, just to be clear,” Musk said. “Now this election, I will.”

The following day, he called Democrats the party of “division and hate” and suggested they will launch “dirty campaign tricks” against him.

“In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party,” Musk said. “But they have become the party of division and hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican. Now, watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold.”

Liberal figures decried Musk’s $43.4 billion deal with Twitter to purchase the platform in April, arguing the social media company needs to increase their monitoring of misinformation, disinformation, and hate speech.

“He seems to believe that on social media anything goes. For democracy to survive, we need more content moderation, not less,” Washington Post columnist Max Boot said in an April 14 tweet.

MSNBC host Joy Reid claimed Musk misses the “old South Africa of the ’80s” by wanting to allow supporters of former President Donald Trump back onto the platform.

“There was a time when people had the double hashtags around their names because they were Jewish and right-wingers were saying ‘get in the oven’ anytime you made any benign comment on Twitter. They attacked women, the misogyny was crazy on Twitter for a while. Elon Musk, I guess he misses the old South Africa in the ’80s, he wants that back.”

DeSantis previously vowed to hold Twitter board members accountable for imposing the “poison pill” to prevent Musk from taking over Twitter. The “poison pill” also allows for shareholders to buy more stock at a cheaper price and potentially dilute Musk’s ownership stake to prevent him from purchasing the entire company.

“I think that’s probably an injury to the fund, so we’re going to be looking at ways that the state of Florida potentially can be holding these Twitter board of directors accountable for breaching their fiduciary duty,” the governor said.