So, who is Andrew Yang...
other than the man debate moderators turn to
when they're sick of being yelled at by Bernie?
It turns out he's got a pretty interesting story.
NEWSMAN: His parents immigrated from Taiwan.
His father, a physicist.
His mother has a master's in math and statistics.
Yang grew up in Schenectady, New York.
YANG: I was a very nerdy Chinese kid.
Played piano and had braces.
NEWSMAN: He studied economics and political science
at Brown, and went to law school at Columbia.
NEWSWOMAN: Yang made millions helping Americans study harder
for standardized tests
as CEO of Manhattan Prep.
He then founded Venture for America,
an organization helping entrepreneurs create jobs
in cities like Baltimore and Detroit,
and Yang says it helped push him into politics.
He was named a presidential ambassador
of entrepreneurship by the Obama administration,
and a champion of change.
Okay, wait. What?
I didn't know that.
Yang was Obama's ambassador of entrepreneurship.
I didn't know that.
Like, why does he never talk about that at the debates?
Yeah. 'Cause if you have anything to do with Obama,
you got to bring that shit up every time you get a chance.
Every other candidate does it.
I was his vice president.
I worked in his cabinet.
If you squint, I kind of look like him.
(laughter)
So Andrew Yang is a lawyer
who made millions of dollars as an entrepreneur.
But what got his presidential campaign noticed
was not how much money he has,
but how much money he was willing to give away.
NARRATOR: He announced in 2017.
That barely moved the needle.
Then he went on The Joe Rogan Experience
in February of 2019.
He talked about his Universal Basic Income plan,
which would give every American citizen
a thousand dollars a month,
and suddenly the mentions of him skyrocketed.
Tonight, free money for every American adult
for every month, no strings attached.
Presidential candidate Andrew Yang's big idea:
Give every American adult a thousand dollars a month.
If you've heard anything about me and my campaign,
you've heard something like this:
There's an Asian man running for president
who wants to give everyone $1,000 a month.
Yes. When Andrew Yang started running for president,
no one cared, but then when they found out
he was gonna give out free money,
all of a sudden, everyone knew his name.
And that's the magic of money.
It brings people out of the woodwork.
Yeah. Everyone. Yeah.
You win the lottery, you'll get family you didn't know existed.
In fact, next time there's an earthquake emergency,
right, the personnel should just walk around the rubble, like,
"I'm giving away free cash!"
People will dig themselves out of the rubble, like,
"Did someone say free cash?"
So, under Universal Basic Income,
or, as Andrew Yang calls it, the Freedom Dividend,
his proposal is that every single American
over the age of 18 would receive a check
for a thousand dollars every month.
No strings attached. Every American.
Even Bill Gates. Yeah.
And, like, what is Bill Gates gonna do with a check
for a thousand dollars? Just be like,
"Great. I can dip this in water and use it as a wet nap.
Thank you, U.S. government. Thank you."
So that's the policy that made Andrew Yang famous.
And it turns out, there's a lot more where that came from.
NARRATOR: No other Democratic candidate
has more policy stances on their website than Yang.
From core issues like the Freedom Dividend
to more obscure ones targeting airlines and robocalling.
Some of his other policy proposals:
Medicare for all, gun safety,
and even free marriage counseling for all.
TV REPORTER: Yang says that he would pardon
every prison inmate convicted
of non-violent marijuana offenses if he gets elected.
And Andrew Yang says if he were elected,
he would promote transparency
by declassifying information
about Air Force Area 51.
So if I become privy to information
about aliens or Area 51
or anything that I am able to share,
I will share it.
Ah, okay.
That's super exciting.
If Andrew Yang becomes president,
he's gonna tell all of us what's in Area 51?
-That is so dope. -(whooping)
That is so dope, because we get to learn about aliens
and Rudy Giuliani gets to meet his family.
Wow!
Everybody wins.
So that's Andrew Yang.
A businessman turned politician
who wants to show us the money and the aliens.
Oh, and there's one other thing you should know about him.
He's probably gonna spend his $1,000 a month
on the swear jar.
Donald Trump's the scissors, I'm the (bleep) rock.
There's a lot of bullshit around it, too.
I call bullshit!
And I should really (bleep) do it.
That's right, I did some (bleep) math!
(bleep). Shit. (bleep).
Challenge (bleep) accepted.
You are getting (bleep).
And so, because you're getting (bleep),
you're just like, "Hey, I don't want to care."
And I want to undo that.
I want to un(bleep) you.
And so, if you want to help me un(bleep) you,
then, like, vote me into office.
What?
I want to un(bleep) you?
I got to say, that's a weird presidential pitch.
But it would make a really original R & B song, you know?
Just like, ♪ If I had known your bed ♪
♪ Was a mattress on the ground, boy ♪
♪ Oh, I want to un(bleep) you. ♪
But, yeah, it turns out Andrew Yang
doesn't just have tons of policies,
he has a ton of curse words.
And you know what?
That could actually be the key
to getting him more attention at these debates.
Yeah, think about it.
Trump didn't get onstage
and release a bunch of policy papers.
No, he went up there, and he said...
he said he had a big penis, and if Americans voted for him,
the rest of us would have big penises, too,
and Mexico would pay for them.
So, Andrew Yang, if you want more media attention,
you got to take it, man.
The next time you get up on that stage,
make your six minutes count.
Just come out onstage and be like,
"Elect me, and I'll make it rain every mother(bleep) month!
"Universal basic income
"for all you universal basic bitches!
"This shit's gonna work, and you can trust my ass
'cause I rolled with Barack mother(bleep) Obama."