Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang just made an appearance on the H3 podcast with husband and wife duo Ethan Klein and Hila Klein — available on YouTube — and one of the topics that came up was the Democratic debate format. Yang, who The Inquisitr reported broke the fourth wall and called out the reality TV format during his closing statement at last week’s debate, made the somewhat unsurprising revelation that some of the debate attacks are not just planned before the program goes live but coordinated with the networks.
“You know one thing I’ll share with you all is that some of the campaigns are in touch with the TV network ahead of time to talk about what sort of attack they wanna level on the stage,” he said.
“The campaign says ‘Hey, um, we’re gonna make this attack against Biden,’ and then the network goes, ‘OK, like, we get it.’ And then they help create that opportunity,” he added.
“And I wanna share with you the perspective, it’s like I think like a layperson who happens to find themselves on the presidential debate stage being like, ‘What the hell is going on here?’” he said, laughing.
Ethan asked Yang what his message is to people who are disengaged with politics because they find it impossible to understand what’s going on. The 44-year-old entrepreneur said that he believes things are worse than the average person thinks, and that the disengaged voters’ despair is understandable. He said that Washington, DC isn’t a great place — institutions are corrupt and weak, and he believes that most people working at them are “checked out and jaded.”
Come check out the first ever PRESIDENTIAL H3 Podcast as we are joined by @AndrewYang at the H3 Podcast world HQ! Come check it out at https://t.co/IWG3b4E2N8 pic.twitter.com/c4BJ9OvSYr
— The H3 Podcast (@theh3podcast) August 7, 2019
Yang used the moment to push his campaign, an outsider movement that’s funded mostly by small grassroots donors. He has suggested he could shake things up and change the Washington landscape. He claims that electing him would change the polarization of politics and highlighted that people sense he isn’t ideological and is instead focused on solving the problems of the people.
Per The Inquisitr , Yang’s closing statement last week called out the news media for focusing on one particular, and not very meaningful, part of his first debate appearance — that he wasn’t wearing a tie. He said that the debates are focused on spectacle and rehearsed attack lines and claims that this format is at least one reason reality TV star Donald Trump is now president.
The line appears to be at least in part inspired by a supporter’s suggestion during Yang’s Reddit thread, “Ask Me Anything.”
