- 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.
(crowd laughs) (upbeat music)
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.
- [Reporter] 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.
- [Andrew] I was a very nerdy, Chinese kid.
I played piano, and had braces.
- [Reporter] He studied economics,
and political science at Brown,
and went to law school at Columbia.
- [Reporter] 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.
- [Reporter] 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.
Why does he never talk about that at the debates?
Yeah, 'cause if you have anything to do with Obama,
you gotta bring that shit up every time you got a chance.
(crowd laughs)
Every other candidate does it.
I was his vice president.
I worked in his cabinet.
If you squint, I kind of look like him.
(crowd laughs)
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.
- [Reporter] 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 $1,000 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 $1,000 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.
- 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 $1,000, every month,
no strings attached.
Every American.
Even Bill Gates, yeah. (crowd laughs)
And like, what is Bill Gates gonna do
with a check for $1,000?
Just be like, "Great, I can dip this in water
"and use it as a wet nap.
"Thank you U.S. Government, thank you."
(crowd laughs)
So, that's the policy that made Andrew Yang famous.
And it turns out, there's a lot more where that came from.
- [Reporter] 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.
- [Reporter] Yang says that,
he would pardon every prison inmate
convicted of nonviolent marijuana offenses
if he gets elected.
- And Andrew Yang says that 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...
(audience laughs)
- 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! (crowd cheers)
That is so dope because we get to learn about aliens,
and Rudy Giuliani gets to meet his family.
Wow, everybody wins. (crowd cheers)
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 to spend his $1,000 a month
on the swear jar.
- If Donald Trump's the scissors, I'm the (beep) rock.
There's a lot of bullshit around it too.
I call bullshit!
And I should really (beep) do it.
That's right, I did some (beep) math.
(beep)
Shit. (beep)
Challenge (beep) accepted.
You are getting (beep),
and so because you're getting (beep),
you're just like, "Hey, I don't want to care.",
and I wanna undo that.
I want to (beep) you. (crowd laughs)
And so if you want to help me (beep) you,
then vote me into office.
- What?
I want to (beep) you?
I gotta say, that's a weird presidential pitch,
but it would make a really original R&B song you know.
It's like,
♪ If I had known your bed was a mattress on the ground boy ♪
♪ Ooh I want to (beep) you ♪
(crowd laughs) 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 on stage
and release a bunch of policy papers.
No, he went up there and he said he had a big penis,
and if Americans voted for him,
the rest of us would have big penis's too,
(crowd laughs)
and Mexico would pay for them.
(crowd laughs)
So Andrew Yang, if you want more media attention,
you gotta take it man.
The next time you get up on that stage,
make your six minutes count.
Just come out on stage and be like,
"Elect me and I'll make it rain every (beep) 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 (beep) Obama."
(crowd cheers) (crowd laughs)
- The 2020 presidential campaign.
Like my afternoon poop, it's not quite here yet,
but I can already feel it.
Out of all the candidates
there's only one I can see myself in.
- I'm Andrew Yang
and I'm running for president as a Democrat in 2020.
- He's a successful business man,
and I don't know if it's the cut of his suits,
or the way he lights up a room,
but there's just something about this guy,
that makes me want to vote for him based on zero research.
Okay, so you're Asian.
You're running for president.
What else is there to know? (crowd laughs)
- My platform.
- Right, I thought your platform was being Asian.
(crowd laughs)
- There are many, many other Americans who care more about
my stance on the issues, than frankly, what my race is.
- Which is?
- Asian.
- Yes, and that's all we need to know here.
Okay, let's wrap this up.
(mellow music)
- You know, I think we should discuss my platform.
- If you want to talk about what you believe, or whatever,
go for it.
I'm gonna edit all this out by the way.
- I believe that every American adult, at the age of 18,
should get $1,000 a month,
free and clear from the government,
to do whatever they want.
- For working hard, right?
- Well, for being a citizen of this great country.
- As his ads show, Yang is all about universal basic income.
The idea that the government
should give everyone a monthly check,
even if they're not working.
You can't just give people free money.
That's the only reason people work.
If I was getting paid without having to work.
(crowd laughs)
- You can't quit your job on $12,000 a year.
It would make it so American's can transition
as technology is eating away many, many jobs.
Artificial intelligence is around the corner.
- Oh my god.
Artificial intelligence, robots,
that's your thing?
- Yes.
- Dude, you are making it so hard to blindly vote
on identity politics right now.
- Projections are that about 44% of American jobs
are subject to automation.
Self driving cars and trucks
are going to displace five million Americans
who drive for a living.
- Shit.
- It's going to displace
hundreds of thousands of book keepers,
lawyers, and on and on.
- [Ronny] According to Yang,
everyone but me should get ready to be replaced.
So if Andrew Yang
is going to stand a chance in this election,
he's gonna have to learn what really excites today's voters.
- If we had a value added tax
at even half the European level, we can--
- You're using all these numbers, and all this nerd shit.
Listen, there's only one thing
that wins election in America.
That's fear, and hate.
- That's two things. (crowd laughs)
- Okay again, with the numbers.
People are jobless, angry,
and ready to blame their problems on other race.
And robots are the one race it's okay to hate.
- Yeah well, robots aren't a race for one.
- Good, deny their humanity.
That's a great first step. (crowd laughs)
Next time you campaign, I want you to go out and say,
"Robots are causing all the robot crime in robot Chicago."
- But there is no robot Chicago.
- It doesn't matter, we're not talking about truth.
We're talking about hate, and fear,
and getting in power,
for Asian people, (crowd laughs)
and getting revenge on every single person,
whoever said we weren't good enough.
- I'm for none of those things.
- Good thing I'm here to help you out.
So, this is an ad we prepared for your campaign.
- Andrew Yang knows America is being invaded,
by robots.
They're sneaking across the border,
taking the jobs we love, (crowd laughs)
and imposing their same-sex robot sharia law.
Andrew Yang will stop the robots from banging your wife,
and becoming your son's new dad.
Yang, 2020.
You will not replace us.
What do you think?
- It's kind of the opposite of where we need to go.
- So you do not approve this message?
- No, I do not approve this message.
- You do not what?
Sorry, I missed that.
- Approve this message.
- And what is your name again?
- I'm Andrew Yang.
- [Ronny] Yang 2020,
(beep) the robots,
(beep) them to hell.
- I'm Andrew Yang and I approve this message.
(crowd laughs)
- Presidential candidate Andrew Yang,
is currently polling in sixth place.
(crowd cheers)
But you wouldn't know it from the media coverage he gets.
In fact, Yang only ranks 13th in cable news mentions,
which probably explains why he has to get attention
with stunts like this.
- A Democratic presidential candidate
is taking his campaign to new heights, literally.
Check this out.
Andrew Yang does crowd surfing.
- [Crowd] Andrew Yang, Andrew Yang!
(crowd cheers)
- The business man,
turned 2020 candidate speaking at a forum
organized by Asian American activist groups,
when he was hoisted into the air,
he tweeted out the video writing,
"Haven't crowd surfed in a while #yanggang."
- Yeah! (crowd laughs)
Yin-yang, Andrew Yang is crowd surfing,
and I know it looks fun,
but for a politician that's really risky.
'Cause you're making so many people grab your ass.
That's a scandal waiting to happen.
Yeah, you basically have to get permission individually,
with every single person that you go past.
This is gonna be like the slowest crowd surf ever.
He'd be like, "Do you consent to my ass?
"Do you consent to my ass?
"Okay, do you consent to my ass?
"Do you consent to my ass?
"Thank you, thank you."
But you realize now that Yang has done it,
I bet other candidates
are also gonna try and be cool, and crowd surf,
which is gonna be awkward for people like Bill de Blasio
who only have one supporter.
(crowd laughs)
And I've got to hand it to Andrew Yang.
He's not getting a ton of media coverage,
so he's out there getting that attention for himself,
crowd surfing, playing basket ball, doing the Cupid Shuffle.
(crowd laughs) Only problem is,
Andrew you realize,
you're gonna have to keep escalating your stunts.
At this rate in six months,
he's gonna have to go full Tom Cruise.
- My flagship proposal to Freedom Dividend
(crowd laughs) would put $1,000 a month
into the hands of every American adult.
It would be a game changer
for millions of American families.
(crowd laughs)
- Of all the candidates I've seen on the trail,
you seem to be having the most fun, are you?
- Well it's a very low bar you've set Trevor.
(crowd laughs)
- What do you say to American workers who go,
"Hey, I don't have a job, and I want to change this."?
- That's exactly right.
Amazon right now
is closing 30% of America's stores and malls,
and paying zero in taxes.
So what we do is we set up a mechanism,
where the American people get our fair share
of every Amazon sale, every Google search,
every robot truck mile,
and put a dividend into American's hands of $1,000 a month.
The Freedom Dividend would help all American's feel like
we're benefiting from all of the progress and innovation.
- That's an interesting and--
(crowd cheers)
- Yeah, you like that.
- Yeah, a lot of people like that.
Because I mean it takes guts to come out and say,
"My plan is that
"we will give every single American $1,000 a month
"just for being here." (crowd laughs)
- Yeah, it's like Monopoly but instead of passing go,
it's the first of the month.
- You just get, yeah, but now here's the thing.
I don't know if you've played Monopoly.
It always ends in tears.
(crowd laughs)
And that's what people are saying would happen
if you gave people universal basic income.
You know yes, the smaller countries have trialed it,
but they have found,
for instance in some Scandinavian countries,
that then people don't work enough,
or they don't want to work.
They lose ambition.
There is a negative effect to that.
How do you pay for it and how do you ensure
that it doesn't mean people
just don't contribute to society.
- Well when I've looked at all of the studies
as to what happened when people got money,
only two groups worked less.
New mothers who spend more time with their children,
and teenagers who spend more time in school,
and graduate at higher levels.
I don't think anyone here
has a problem with either of those things.
(audience cheers)
- And then how do you pay for it?
- And the way you pay for it,
again if you have a trillion dollar tech company like Amazon
paying zero in taxes,
then of course you're gonna look around and be like,
where is the money going?
Where is the money going? - Right.
- But if you give the American people a slice,
of every Amazon sale, every AI driven interaction,
- Yes. - just a sliver,
because the amount of value that that technology's
going to generate can literally be measured
in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
We have to put ourselves in a position to benefit,
and then we can pay for a dividend of $1,000 a month.
- One of my favorite quotes that you said was,
you said you are the complete opposite of Donald Trump.
And the reason was,
- Because he-- (crowd cheers)
Thank you.
- We'll listen to the reason why.
- Because the opposite of Donald Trump,
is an Asian man who likes math.
(crowd cheers)
(upbeat melody)