Democratic presidential hopeful Andrew Yang declared himself President Trump’s “kryptonite” and said Mr. Trump hasn’t targeted him on Twitter because the president knows he’s not the candidate to mess with.
“I truly am his kryptonite,” Mr. Yang said in an interview for WBUR’s “On Point” published Thursday. “He even said in a rally in West Virginia a number of months ago, he said he can’t wait to run against the Democrats. The only thing he’s worried about is that some new figure comes out of nowhere, and I’m that figure.”
“He runs most effectively against people that are part of the D.C. establishment, and I am not,” Mr. Yang said.
The entrepreneur pointed out that he is one of the only candidates Mr. Trump hasn’t targeted on Twitter.
“And the reason for that is that he’s a bully, and he knows I’m better at the internet than he is,” he said. “A lot of the people online that create memes and whatnot have converted to the ’Yang Gang.’ So he hasn’t touched me because he knows I’m not the candidate he wants to mess with.”
Mr. Yang said that “humor is the best antidote,” because simply calling Mr. Trump’s actions divisive isn’t terribly effective.
“So the nickname that we’ve come up with, that we think he will use for me, is ’Comrade Yang,’ because it’s a little racist — it makes me seem like a communist or something like that,” he said.
But Mr. Yang said his idea to give every American a $1,000-per-month stipend “is simply capitalism where income doesn’t start at zero.”
Considered an afterthought by some pundits months ago, Mr. Yang is now in sixth place in the latest Real Clear Politics average of public polling on the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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