Andrew Yang received high praise from political observers for his analysis during his first day as a TV commentator.
CNN announced Wednesday that Yang, an entrepreneur who dropped out of the Democratic presidential race last week after single-digit showings in Iowa and New Hampshire, joined the network as a contributor.
He made his first contributor appearance last night to discuss that evening’s Democratic presidential debate, the first with former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on the stage.
“I don’t think he was coached hard enough,” Yang said of Bloomberg’s debate performance. “Number two, he was clearly instructed to keep his cool no matter what, but that ended up presenting as being lethargic and uninterested for a big chunk of the debate.”
Primary rivals piled on Bloomberg in the debate, attacking his record supporting stop-and-frisk policing policy, allegations of sexist comments toward women in the workplace, and his strategy to spend his own personal fortune on his presidential bid.
“The fact that he did not have those answers at his fingertips lets me know, categorically, he was not properly prepared for this debate,” Yang said.
Yang wore his signature “MATH” pin, which stands for his campaign slogan, “Make America Think Harder.”
Many political observers enjoyed Yang’s to-the-point analysis of Wednesday’s Democratic presidential debate, particularly as someone who was in the same position as the remaining candidates less than two weeks ago.
Yang campaigned on providing a universal income of $1,000 per month to every U.S. citizen to combat changing economic factors brought on by technological automation. The unconventional candidate had an unusually positive and upbeat attitude on the campaign trail and inspired a “Yang Gang” of followers.
At one point during post-debate analysis, fellow CNN commentator Van Jones mourned Yang’s exit from the Democratic presidential field.
“The one I had the most hope in is you because you had a different set of ideas,” Jones said.
Yang rose from obscurity to become a highly-visible candidate, rallying a coalition of liberal Democrats, libertarians and some disaffected Republicans to form a devoted group of followers known as the Yang Gang.
A prominent platform in his campaign was his so-called Freedom Dividend, a plan to give every American adult $1,000 a month universal basic income that he argued would alleviate a host of social ills and eradicate poverty.
Yang’s campaign was defined by the candidate’s happy go-lucky style.
Videos of him singing in a church choir, dancing to the “Cupid Shuffle” and crowdsurfing at events regularly went viral, helping burnish his image as a candidate just happy to be with his fans.