‘It was like, “Oh f**k”!’ Long-shot Democrat Andrew Yang says his microphone was OFF during parts of Thursday’s debate and ‘I was talking but nothing was happening’
- Tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang got less time to speak in Thursday’s debate than any other candidate in the two-night Democratic primary affair
- He told supporters afterward that at times he tried to speak but his mic was off
- ‘I was talking but nothing was happening,’ Yang claimed
- The long-shot candidate’s 2 minutes and 58 seconds of airtime was less than one-quarter of what former Vice President Joe Biden got
- An NBC News spokesman told DailyMail.com on Friday: ‘At no point during the debate was any candidate’s microphone turned off or muted’
Democratic presidential hopeful Andrew Yang spoke less during Thursday’s debate than any other candidate in the two-night event, and he claims one reason is that NBC silenced him.
On a few occasions, he told supporters after the Miami debate, ‘I just started talking, being like, “Hey, I want to add something there,” and my mic was, like, not on.’
Yang, a technology entrepreneur, had just 2 minutes and 58 seconds to speak during Thursday’s two-hour event. Former Vice President Joe Biden consumed 13 minutes and 19 seconds, leading the pack.
The 20 Democratic rivals got an average of 8 minutes and 9 seconds each over the course of four hours of TV broadcasts.
Tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang got less time to speak in Thursday’s debate than any other candidate in the two-night Democratic primary affair, and said later that his mic was turned off at times
The dramatic spread between the stopwatch winners and losers on Thursday is demonstrated by this chart
Yang, pictured third from left, said he tried to jump in as more well-known candidates jousted but couldn’t because his mic wasn’t producing any sound
Yang said afterward that it was ‘jarring’ to watch the debate’s ‘ping-pong ball’ bounce between just a few top contenders.
‘And it’s this sort of thing where it’s not like if you started talking, it takes over the convo,’ he said.
‘It’s like, I was talking but nothing was happening. And it was like, “Oh f**k.” So that happened a bit too.’
Yang’s suggestion of unfairness from NBC wasn’t the only such claim this week.
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s sister wrote Thursday on Twitter that the network was playing favorites after the Hawaiian lawmaker watched one rival get five questions in the first half-hour of Wednesday’s debate.
Despite being a blip on Americans’ TV sets, Yang took first place in an unscientific post-debate poll hosted by the influential Drudge Report website
‘It’s clear who MSNBC wants to be president: Elizabeth Warren,’ Vrindavan Gabbard wrote. ‘They’re giving her more time than all of the other candidates combined. They aren’t giving any time to Tulsi at all.’
Gabbard got 6 minutes and 39 seconds to speak, and Warren came in seventh overall in the two-night clock sweepstakes with 9 minutes and 31 seconds.
Other than Biden, three candidates spoke for more than 10 minutes apiece on Thursday: California Sen. Kamala Harris (12:16), South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg (11:21) and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (10:58).
An NBC News spokesman told DailyMail.com on Friday: ‘At no point during the debate was any candidate’s microphone turned off or muted.’
Despite being a blip on Americans’ TV sets, Yang took first place in an unscientific post-debate poll hosted by the influential Drudge Report website.