Businessman Andrew Yang said he was honored and disappointed to be the only nonwhite candidate onstage and that he missed Sens. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) during the PBS/Politico 2020 Democrat presidential primary debate.
Yang used the question about race to again promote his premier policy position: Universal Basic Income (UBI), where every American citizen receives $1,000 a month.
“It’s both an honor and disappointment to be the lone candidate of color onstage tonight,” Yang said. “I miss Kamala, and I miss Cory, though I think Cory will be back. I grew up the son of immigrants, and I had many racial epithets thrown against me.”
“And the question is, why am I the lone candidate of color on this stage?” Yang asked. “Fewer than five percent of Americans donate to political campaigns. You know what you need to donate to political campaigns? Disposable income.”
Yang continued, “The way we fix it … is we take Martin Luther King’s guaranteed minimum income … a freedom dividend of $1,000 a month for all Americans. I guarantee, if we had a freedom dividend of $1,000 a month, I would not be the only candidate of color onstage tonight.”
Democrats running for president have said they are the party of racial diversity, though the leading contenders — former Vice President Joe Biden and Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) — are all white.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.