Businessman Andrew Yang on Thursday said he’s not sure anyone’s opinion of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden changed after the previous night’s Democratic presidential primary debate, saying Americans are smart enough to know that the format is a bit of a game and that the party will unify in the end.
“If you see what happened after the last debate, Joe had a bit of a dip and then he just came back,” Mr. Yang said on CNN’s “New Day.” “We all know who Joe Biden is, you know, and I’m not sure last night changed anyone’s opinion as to who Joe Biden is.”
“It’s funny because we hype up the debates and the narratives that develop at the debates, and then to see that Joe Biden just snapped back to where he was and everyone else [snap] back to where they were — I think people’s perception of the candidates is very resilient and consistent,” he said.
Mr. Yang said the debate presented a dynamic that encourages candidates to “tear down” the front-runners and that viewers can see it’s somewhat of a game.
Other candidates like Sen. Cory A. Booker of New Jersey, Sen. Kamala D. Harris of California and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York had tangled with Mr. Biden at Wednesday’s debate in Detroit over issues ranging from criminal justice to health care to women’s rights.
“I think viewers are savvy enough to know exactly what’s going on,” Mr. Yang said. “They see it’s like, ’Hey, they’re going to take shots at Joe. They’re going to take shots at Kamala,’ and then they take it all with a grain of salt because they kind of know that at the end of the day, the party’s going to come back together.”
Mr. Yang, whose central policy proposal would give Americans a $1,000-per-month stipend, used his closing statement at the debate to poke at the pageantry and superficiality of the exercise.
“Instead of talking about automation and our future, including the fact that we automated away 4 million manufacturing jobs, hundreds of thousands right here in Michigan, we’re up here with makeup on our faces and our rehearsed attack lines, playing roles in this reality TV show,” he said on Wednesday. “It’s one reason why we elected a reality TV star as our president.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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