- The Washington Times - Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Presidential hopeful Andrew Yang said Tuesday the Democratic Party still needs to “dig deep” to comprehend President Trump’s 2016 election victory.

The entrepreneur and Universal Basic Income advocate discussed with CNN’s “New Day” the health of his campaign, challenges with the Democratic National Committee and “the fourth industrial revolution.”

“Tens of millions of Americans decided to take a bet on Donald Trump, and it’s up to Democrats to dig deep and figure out why they made that choice,” he said while on the campaign trail in Exeter, New Hampshire. “To me, the answer is very clear and we automated away nearly 4 million manufacturing jobs that were primarily based in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Iowa — all the swing states that Donald Trump needed to win. And it’s not stopping there.”

Mr. Yang, whose grassroots campaign has generated more than 1 million donations from nearly 400,000 people, then framed himself as the candidate most familiar with the nation’s changing technological landscape.

“The fourth industrial revolution does not care about political ideology,” he said. “It’s ripping our communities apart, and that’s what the Democratic Party needs to address. That’s what I will address as president.”

He added that Americans aren’t seeing the depth and breadth of his support due to a dearth of polling. 

“We don’t have a problem with the DNC setting thresholds as long as there are actually polls so the candidates can actually meet those thresholds,” he said. “I want you to put yourself in the shoes of one of our almost 400,000 donors who fueled this campaign, and then there aren’t any polls to even see whether our support has been growing over the last 45 days. That’s not fair to the voter. The DNC should be trying to make the voice of the American people heard — not pushing it aside.”

• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.

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