so I remember the first time I interviewed you we were both kind of
wandering around downtown Concord you had places to go I was trying to find
you and I'm not gonna say you were just a guy because you clearly knew what you
were talking about but you've made it a long way from that point what's the
what's the biggest change that you've seen since you were essentially
wandering the streets of Concord to now being Andrew yang presidential candidate
who's on those big debate stages people who knowing who I am that's totally my
recollection as well Adam where you know when I came to New Hampshire with the
first time most people were completely unfamiliar with me my platform and now
the crowds are bigger the Energy's higher the enthusiasm is electric and
it's very touching it's very heartening you know as a human being when you see
people actually so happy to see you I mean it's very heartwarming and their
big rating do you think universal basic income is I mean obviously people like
you that's you know your supporters do but is that helped open the door a
little bit the fact that hey there's the guy who wants to give me $1,000 a month
as a starting point not bad right well it's likely the first thing someone's
heard about me in the campaign and then many people initially I think see it as
too good to be true or a gimmick or somehow not possible and then when you
dig into our history you find that there's a deeply American idea and we
can make it a reality if enough let's come together particularly in New
Hampshire now people in New Hampshire come together then the freedom dividend
will become reality in 2021 so ubi gets you in the door do you feel
like you have to raise your game do something different to break through
that next level to get up there with Elizabeth Warren Joe Biden Bernie
Sanders now in many ways Adam I thinking you've seen the progression it's harder
to go from totally anonymous to a fourth bit there six on the polls which I am
now by most every measurement to go from fourth to 36 and the polls to first so
we're one of the very few campaigns in the field that has been growing
consistently and that just continues to accelerate so if we
keep on this track we are going to contend for the whole thing and one of
the things that's most exciting is that I'm one of only two candidates in the
field that 10% or more of Donald Trump voters say they will support so when I
am the Democratic nominee we win the whole thing and Democrats have one
primary criteria for the nominee and that's beating Donald Trump when they
realize that I'm as sure a bet to beat Donald Trump as anyone else in the field
you'll see my numbers just grow and grow when we first started talking you
weren't a big fan of impeachment when it was back in just the Russia
investigation what do you think now that we've seen more come out in particular
regards to this whistleblower complaint yes I concluded earlier this week that
impeachment was the right way to go because of just the egregious pattern of
behavior and that if you have the president literally leaning on a foreign
leader to try a kneecap a political rival and then suppress the
investigation at some point in Congress had to act and so I believe that it's
right to proceed with impeachment hearings I will say though that every
moment we're talking about Donald Trump is a victory for Donald Trump and that
the challenge that Democrats need to meet is to have our own vision for the
country that people will be excited about the vision cannot be we're not
Donald Trump we have to solve the problems that actually got Donald Trump
into office in 2016 before we wrap up here I've got a question there's a very
strong culture around your campaign you know you've got the Gang Gang crowd
surfing you see a lot of you online social media there's a real splash there
but this thing that happened with this guy from SNL who got hired and then
fired over his racial slurs you were saying you know I think canceled culture
has gone a little too far talk a little bit about that and explain
you know if he didn't cross a line for you then what is the line I guess those
were pretty offensive statements yes and he used racial epithets for me
specifically as an individual which obviously you know when I first heard of
I was like what like who is this person what did he say what just happened
and so I sat down with my wife to watch some of his work is coming trying to
figure out whether he was malignant and racist or whether he was something else
and upon sitting out and watching his work I thought he was a still warming
comedian from central Pennsylvania who told some offensive jokes and to me
that's not the sort of thing you should lose your job over particularly if you
were in that line of work and as the person who was personally insulted I
thought well if I think that he should not lose his job then I should certainly
say something about that because if anyone should be taking offense it's me
but that was after some deliberation and investigation to figure out what I
thought of him individually and I think that's where we should be as a country
instead of instead of being unduly punitive and vindictive we should be a
little bit more forgiving and understanding and try and humanize
behaviors that in the abstract we'd find problematic very rational
response there sometimes people want a president who will react though get
punched in the face they might punch back oh if you punch me in the face I'll
punch back I'm not gonna test that but but as you suggested I do think that
canceled culture has gone a bit too far and one thing someone said that stuck
with me is that if you have a group of people calling for someone to be fired
that group of people then moves on a week later but then the person still
fired so you know you're in some cases are
relatively changing someone's life or career and that lasts for years whereas
that satisfaction that you get by calling for it fades away very quickly
all right Andrew yang thanks for spending time with us thanks I'm good to
see you again we appreciate