Hosting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at a Twitter audio event on Wednesday to announce his presidential bid was supposed to be a triumphant moment for Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter.

Instead, the event began with more than 20 minutes of technical glitches, hot mic moments, and muffled, half-said conversations before the live feed abruptly cut off. Minutes later, the live broadcast was restarted as hundreds of thousands of listeners tried to tune in. Mr. DeSantis hadn’t said a word at the time.

“That was crazy, I’m sorry,” Musk said.

Behind the stop-start Twitter Space, an audio-only live broadcast on the social network, was a company that has undergone major changes in recent months. Since Musk bought Twitter last year for $44 billion, he has reshaped it by cutting more than 75 percent of its workforce, changing speech rules and reinstating suspended users. Outages have been on the rise, as have bugs that have made Twitter less useful.

The technical problems on Wednesday showed how far from perfect Twitter is performing, turning what was supposed to be a crowning event for Musk into something of an embarrassment.

The event had been an opportunity for Musk, an unpredictable executive with interests in many fields, to advance multiple agendas. Those included a political introduction for the billionaire, who has flirted with right-wing accounts and politics for years on Twitter but has never embraced a presidential candidate the way he has embraced Mr. DeSantis. And it was supposed to be a way for Musk to further his business interests by highlighting Twitter, which he’s trying to change.

“He is being clear that he will use his media platform to advance his own political interests in a way that is unprecedented in his outspokenness,” said Jason Goldman, a former vice president of product at Twitter.

Musk did not respond to a request for comment.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.