Former Democratic presidential candidate and current CNN contributor Andrew Yang suddenly experienced tech issues on Saturday and did not respond when asked on CNN about a highly controversial remark that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden made on Friday about the black community.
CNN played Biden&#8217;s remarks from Friday, which were widely deemed as racist, where he said during an interview on &#8220;The Breakfast Club&#8221;: “I tell you, if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.”
CNN anchor Ana Cabrera asked Yang, who <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/10/politics/andrew-yang-endorses-joe-biden/index.html">endorsed</a> Biden for president in March while on CNN, &#8220;What&#8217;s your reaction?&#8221;
Yang then allegedly had technical difficulties, even though the video feed was still working, and did not respond to Cabrera.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
CNN asks Andrew Yang about Joe Biden saying Black Americans who don&#39;t support him &quot;ain&#39;t Black&quot; and all the sudden Yang can&#39;t hear and he leaves the show <a href="https://t.co/KI5ipsHYkF">pic.twitter.com/KI5ipsHYkF</a>
&mdash; Kyle Martinsen &#8211; Text TRUMP to 88022 (@KyleMartinsen_) <a href="https://twitter.com/KyleMartinsen_/status/1264324108076146691?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 23, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Yang did not make any remarks on Twitter about the question, but did retweet a video clip that Cabrera posted that showed a portion of their interview.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
“We need to rewrite the rules of our economy from the ground up, this is the equivalent of a natural disaster and we all know who gets hurt the worst in a natural disaster. It’s people with lower levels of resources which overlaps with people of color and women.” <a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewYang?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AndrewYang</a> <a href="https://t.co/4c7nMqCrq7">pic.twitter.com/4c7nMqCrq7</a>
&mdash; Ana Cabrera (@AnaCabrera) <a href="https://twitter.com/AnaCabrera/status/1264326341211705344?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 23, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Biden&#8217;s remarks were widely condemned throughout the media and by many notable public officials.
One of the most notable responses came from Fox News host Harris Faulkner, who <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-harris-faulkner-powerfully-responds-to-bidens-you-aint-black-comment-ive-been-fighting-against-this-notion">said</a>, “I’ve been fighting against this notion that you’re not black enough unless you think a certain way, or you vote a certain way, you speak a certain way, you do certain things. My whole life, I grew up military, pretty much neutral along the zone of can we all just get along no matter what we look like.”
“I have biracial daughters,” she continued. “This is more than just a little offensive; it is shortsighted; it is a blind spot for this former vice president.  He should’ve gotten up immediately on whatever venue or microphone he had. I would’ve said it for him immediately right there on ‘The Breakfast Club.’ And say, ‘you know what, let me restate that.&#8217;”
Faulkner then read a statement from the Trump campaign senior adviser Katrina Pierson:
<blockquote>White liberal elitists have continuously dictated which black Americans are allowed to come to the table and have a voice. It is clear now more than ever, following these racist and dehumanizing remarks, that Joe Biden believes black men and women are incapable of being independent or free-thinking. He truly believes that he, a 77-year-old white man, should dictate how black people should behave. Biden has a history of racial condescension and today he once again proved what a growing number of black Americans and I have always known — Joe Biden does not deserve our votes.</blockquote>
Harris concluded by saying, “You don’t have to be any particular race to know when someone puts you down because you’re different.”
Paris Dennard, Senior Communications Advisor for Black Media Affairs for the Republican Party, said in a statement: “Joe Biden has a history of bigoted and racist remarks that he can no longer hide from in his basement quarantine. With the powerhouse political machine the RNC has built, we will be sure that every Black American knows the choice they face in November &#8211; a candidate with a failed record who has continuously taken our community for granted, or continued prosperity and opportunity under President Trump. 1.3 million Black Americans voted for President Trump in 2016, and more are coming in November.”
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Democratic Presidential Candidates Participate In Last Debate Of 2019

Biden Supporter Andrew Yang Asked About Biden’s ‘You Ain’t Black’ Remark, Suddenly Has Tech Issues, Didn’t Answer

2020 Election

Andrew Yang

Joe Biden

A Federal judge sided with former 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang on Wednesday, ruling that New York was disenfranchising key voters by canceling &#8212; and not simply postponing &#8212; its presidential primary, which was supposed to be held late last month.
U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres of Manhattan &#8220;ordered Tuesday that New York state hold its canceled Democratic primary in June, which places Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and other former 2020 candidates back on the ballot,&#8221; <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/06/federal-judge-rules-new-york-must-hold-june-primary-canceled-over-coronavirus-risks.html">according to NBC News</a>.
New York first postponed and then canceled its primary over concerns about the spread of coronavirus under the assumption that holding the vote would put both poll workers and voters at risk of contracting the deadly virus, which causes COVID-19.
By the time New York made the decision, all of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates had dropped out of the race save one, former Vice President Joe Biden, making Biden the presumptive nominee even though several states have yet to hold their votes.
Yang sued, though, because New York decided that, instead of simply calling off the contest, they&#8217;d drop all but Biden&#8217;s name from the ballot, making the vote inconsequential. Yang&#8217;s lawyers argued that, despite there being no chance Yang, Sanders, or any other 2020 Democratic presidential candidate might snag the nomination, earning delegates from Democratic primaries is in itself a prize, giving Democratic also-rans with large followings the ability to exercise a measure of control over the Democratic party platform, authored and voted on at the party&#8217;s convention.
Bernie Sanders, who is currently trying to collect as many delegates as possible &#8212; and even inked a deal with Biden to keep the delegates he earned in the first series of primaries, when the race was still competitive &#8212; agreed with Yang and Sanders supporters and even called the New York primary &#8220;fixed&#8221; &#8212; designed to put Biden comfortably ahead of Sanders by earning all of New York&#8217;s delegates without actually competing in the primary.
Judge Torres agreed.
“The Court concludes that Plaintiffs and Plaintiff-Intervenors have shown a clear and substantial likelihood of success on the merits of their claim that the Democratic Commissioners’ April 27 Resolution removing Yang, Sanders, and eight other Democratic presidential candidates from the ballot deprived them of associational rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution,” she wrote in her decision, issued early Wednesday.
She also granted the platinff&#8217;s request for a preliminary injunction, which “restores all ten presidential candidates named in the April 27 Resolution, and their respective slates of delegate candidates, to the New York Democratic presidential primary ballot,&#8221; and demands that New York hold an election on the final possible date, June 23,2020.
Other states are currently wrestling with the possibility of canceling their own primaries, though its not clear how much impact holding a vote has on the spread of coronavirus. Wisconsin, which held its primary in the height of the pandemic, does not appear to have seen an anticipated spike in coronavirus cases related to the election.
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

election

Federal Judge Rules New York Must Hold Canceled Democratic Primary

Bernie Sanders

New York

Former Vice President Joe Biden added former presidential candidate Andrew Yang to his growing list of endorsements on Tuesday night.
Speaking on <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/10/politics/andrew-yang-endorses-joe-biden/index.html">CNN</a>, Yang touted the importance of Democratic Party unity, hailing Joe Biden as &#8220;the right man for the job to help us not just defeat Donald Trump, but govern the country in the years ahead.&#8221;
&#8220;I believe that Joe Biden will be the Democratic nominee and I&#8217;ve always said I&#8217;m going to support whoever the nominee is,&#8221; Yang said. &#8220;So I hereby am endorsing Joe Biden to be not just the nominee for the Democratic Party but the next president of the United States.&#8221;
Though Yang credited Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) with being &#8220;an inspiration,&#8221; he ultimately concluded that &#8220;the math says Joe is our prohibitive nominee.&#8221;
&#8220;We need to bring the party together. We need to start working on defeating Donald Trump in the fall,&#8221; he said.
&#8220;I think Bernie has called out the real problems in a very powerful and necessary way,&#8221; Yang said. &#8220;So, I wanted to let the Democratic process play out and I believe it has. At this point, you can see very clearly that Biden is building a delegate lead that is only going to grow in the days ahead. So, we need to come together as a party, starting tonight.&#8221;
Speaking to Sanders&#8217; supporters weary of a Joe Biden candidacy, Yang said that he understands but ultimately feels that defeating Donald Trump is the most necessary action anyone can take.
&#8220;I get the frustration. I get the desire for a revolution. I get the fact that it seems like our institutions are failing us right and left. I get all of that. It&#8217;s why I ran,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But we have to defeat Donald Trump in order to make progress on the climate, on any of these problems in a bigger way,&#8221;
Though the outcome is highly unlikely, Yang already <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/11/politics/andrew-yang-ends-2020-presidential-campaign/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">told CNN</a> that he would be &#8220;honored&#8221; to be the nominee&#8217;s running-mate.
&#8220;I&#8217;m already on the record, too, saying if I can solve these problems as someone&#8217;s vice president, a member of an administration &#8212; we just need to start solving these problems for the next generation,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And I&#8217;m happy to do my part.&#8221;
As noted by <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/03/11/andrew-yang-endorses-joe-biden/5019328002/">USA Today</a>, Yang supported Bernie Sanders during the 2016 primary against Hillary Clinton. In fact, prior to the Iowa caucus in February, Yang said that his and Bernie&#8217;s supporters had &#8220;a lot of overlap.&#8221;
Yang&#8217;s endorsement of Joe Biden comes several days after failed presidential candidate, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/i-am-spartacus-moment-cory-booker-endorses-joe-biden">threw his support</a> behind Joe Biden despite being severely critical of him during the primary.
“The answer to hatred &amp; division is to reignite our spirit of common purpose,” Booker announced on Twitter. “[Joe Biden] won’t only win – he’ll show there’s more that unites us than divides us. He’ll restore honor to the Oval Office and tackle our most pressing challenges. That’s why I’m proud to endorse Joe.”
Despite losing Michigan during Tuesday&#8217;s primary, Bernie Sanders has pledged to remain in the race and debate Joe Biden this coming Sunday.

Candidates Attend Seventh 2020 Democratic Presidential Debate

Andrew Yang Endorses Joe Biden, Calls For Democratic Party Unity

According to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/michael-bloombergs-campaign-sought-andrew-yangsbacking-floated-vice-presidential-slot-11582831342">The Wall Street Journal</a>, former New York mayor and current Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg has spoken to former presidential candidate Andrew Yang about not only giving Bloomberg an endorsement, but the possibility that Yang could run on the ticket with Bloomberg if Bloomberg gets the Democratic presidential nomination.
The Journal reported:
<blockquote>Michael Bloomberg’s presidential campaign has made overtures to Democrat Andrew Yang, courting the former candidate’s endorsement and floating the possibility of Mr. Yang becoming his running mate, according to two people familiar with the discussions.
Aides to the former New York City mayor reached out to discuss ways the two entrepreneurs-turned-politicians could work together as Mr. Bloomberg seeks the Democratic nomination, these people said.
Mr. Yang, who dropped out of the race earlier this month, didn’t third person familiar with the discussions said.
Mr. Yang didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. A senior Bloomberg aide said Mr. Yang wasn’t being seriously considered to be the former mayor’s running mate if he secured the nomination.</blockquote>
Yang <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2020/02/28/andrew-yang-michael-bloomberg-vice-president-campaign-sot-ac360-vpx.cnn">responded</a> to the Wall Street Journal story on CNN, saying, “What I can say is multiple campaigns have reached out, and it’s flattering to be considered for a VP role or any role in someone’s campaign. I made clear to every other candidate that I ran on a set of issues, automation of jobs, an evolving economy that we need to humanize, and a dividend of a thousand dollars a month for every American, and I said that if a candidate were to make a significant commitment in those directions, then I’d be much more enthusiastic about considering an endorsement.&#8221;
CNN’s Anderson Cooper asked, “So you didn’t really indicate yes or no to anybody on anything other than these are the issues I care about; I would like to see those issues.”
Yang responded, “I probably said a couple of things: number one, I will support whoever the nominee is, and number two, I am very enthusiastic about having the democratic process play out and decide who the nominee is. But also, if someone decides to support the ideas that were central to my campaign, that would go a long way towards making me consider an endorsement &#8230;&#8221;
In November, Yang expressed his doubts that Bloomberg could mount a competitive campaign despite his vast wealth, telling CNN, “I&#8217;m friendly with Mike, and he&#8217;s a great philanthropist, was a really stellar mayor. But I will say it&#8217;s going to be very, very difficult for him to jump in right now and somehow replace the thousands of conversations that many of the candidates have had with voters in New Hampshire and Iowa and around the country with ad buys.”
<a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/08/yang-bloomberg-democratic-primary-067709">Politico</a> added, “Yang added that ‘there are limits to what money can do,’ and predicted Bloomberg is ‘going to have his work cut out for him’ if he joins the pack of 17 Democratic candidates vying to challenge President Donald Trump in next year’s general election.”
Yang said a Bloomberg candidacy is “probably going to change the price of advertising” for other Democratic campaigns, adding, “certainly Mike has a very valuable perspective to offer.”

Democratic Presidential Candidates Speak At DNC Summer Meeting

Bloomberg Discussed VP Slot With Andrew Yang, Report Says

Michael Bloomberg

Democrat presidential candidate Andrew Yang dropped out of the presidential race on Tuesday after early returns from the New Hampshire primary showed another poor outing for the far-left candidate.
“I am a numbers guy,” Yang <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/andrew-yang-drops-out-of-presidential-race/2020/02/11/4fe2c97c-4c2c-11ea-9b5c-eac5b16dafaa_story.html">told</a> The Washington Post. “In most of these [upcoming] states, I’m not going to be at a threshold where I get delegates, which makes sticking around not necessarily helpful or productive in terms of furthering the goals of this campaign.”
“If I become persuaded that there&#8217;s a particular candidate that gives us a superior chance of beating Donald Trump, and I think it&#8217;s important to make that opinion known, then I would consider it for sure,” Yang continued. “Anyone with a crystal ball would have regarded Iowa as a bit of a sinkhole. If we could do it over again, of course, we would not have sunk so much energy and time and resources in Iowa. We would have been fighting it out here in New Hampshire. And then we probably would have been on the air in Nevada or South Carolina.”
Yang <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/11/andrew-yang-drops-out-of-the-2020-presidential-race.html">added</a>, &#8220;I’m not someone who wants to take people’s donations, support, time and dedication if I don’t think we have a chance to win or advance our goals in the right direction.&#8221;
Yang&#8217;s signature proposal was called &#8220;The Freedom Dividend&#8221; which offered to give every American $1,000 per month for a total of $12,000 per year.
The Daily Wire highlighted Yang&#8217;s history and political views in an in-depth profile piece in September:
<blockquote>Andrew Yang, an entrepreneur and philanthropist, is a candidate for the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination. Yang, who is the only 2020 Democratic presidential candidate to appear on Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro’s “Sunday Special” podcast series (video below), is one of the more heterodox candidates in the present 2020 Democratic field. Yang’s proclaimed public policy stances often mirror those in many of his more traditional competitors’ platforms, but his campaign’s signature policy is a universal basic income proposal — which Yang calls a “Freedom Dividend” — whereby every American receives $1,000 a month. His campaign is thematically centered around his entrepreneur background and is focused on restoring, as Yang sees it, the American dream. According to recent 2020 Democratic presidential polling, Yang polls at 0-3% support.
Yang, who would become the first Asian-American nominee for a major American political party if successfully nominated, lives in New York City with his wife Evelyn and their two children. His parents are Taiwanese immigrants.
Yang, who has never before sought political office, is a graduate of Brown University and Columbia Law School. He briefly worked in private law practice before switching his career trajectory to specialize in the start-up and venture capital space. In 2009, Yang founded the nonprofit group Venture for America (VFA), which describes itself as a two-year fellowship program for recent graduates “who want to work at a startup and create jobs in American cities.” Yang’s work with VFA was lauded by the Obama administration.</blockquote>
Read the full report on Yang <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/where-does-andrew-yang-stand-issues-heres-josh-hammer">here</a>.
This report has been updated to include additional information.

Andrew Yang.

Andrew Yang Drops Out Of Presidential Race

It seems that tech entrepreneur and 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang wants to regulate Facebook for allowing political ads on the platform deemed &#8220;false.&#8221;
Speaking during a CNN Town Hall in New Hampshire on Wednesday, Yang declared Facebook to be a &#8220;publisher&#8221; and not a platform, meaning the company can and should be forced to pay a price if it allows &#8220;misleading&#8221; political content on its site, which can easily translate into: content that does not favor Democrats. Delivering his message to CEO Mark Zuckerberg directly, Yang even said that Facebook is &#8220;contributing to the disintegration of our democracy.&#8221;
&#8220;Mark, your company is contributing to the disintegration of our democracy,&#8221; declared Yang. &#8220;If you’re an American and a patriot, and you care about the country your kids will inherit, then you need to have Facebook step up and say there will not be untrue political ads on your platform.&#8221;
When host Don Lemon asked Yang to clarify as to what he would do to &#8220;make&#8221; Facebook conform to this rule, the 2020 candidate said a law should be passed to penalize them.
&#8220;Well, my first preference is to sit down with a major organization like Facebook and say, ‘hey, do the right thing.’ But if they don’t want to do the right thing, then we have a legislature for a reason,&#8221; continued Yang. &#8220;We should just pass a law saying Facebook should not have verifiably false political advertisements on their platform. And if they do, then they should pay a penalty accordingly.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Andrew Yang&#39;s message to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg: “Your company is contributing to the disintegration of our democracy. &#8230; You need to have Facebook step up and say [there] will not be untrue political ads on your platform” <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cnntownhall?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#cnntownhall</a> <a href="https://t.co/F6ixm5JWaE">https://t.co/F6ixm5JWaE</a> <a href="https://t.co/7OWAakGNHK">pic.twitter.com/7OWAakGNHK</a>
&mdash; CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNPolitics/status/1225264591510417408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 6, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Not everything Yang had to say during his town hall stood in lockstep with the far-left, such as when he <a href="https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/cnn-town-halls-02-05-20/index.html">defended the Electoral College</a> as an empowerer of rural areas. On fixing election issues, Yang proposed making Election Day a national holiday while encouraging participation and voter turnout.
&#8220;Candidates who say we should abolish the electoral college – one, it would require literally like a dozen states to shoot themselves in the foot and say they don’t want that kind of power anymore, which is a non-starter,&#8221; Yang said. &#8220;But two, it would end up disadvantaging rural areas because you would just campaign in major media markets and that’s not what the framers of the Constitution intended.&#8221;
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&#8220;We should have ranked-choice voting in this country, so that people can actually vote the way they want and not be worried about ‘wasting their vote;’ we should have Election Day be a national holiday; we should automatically register new voters to make it easier for people to vote, instead of having these obstacles,&#8221; he said.
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Ever since Facebook decided to allow politicians to publish ads on its platform, the Left has mercilessly been targetting the social media platform, routinely characterizing Mark Zuckerberg as an abetter of all things evil. Just last week, billionaire and far-left activist George Soros published a lengthy op-ed in The New York Times in which he <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/george-soros-attacks-facebook-mark-zuckerberg-should-not-be-in-control">attacked Zuckerberg</a> for allowing President Donald Trump to be elected in 2016 and enabling his coming re-election in 2020.
“Facebook can post deliberately misleading or false statements by candidates for public office and others, and take no responsibility for them,” wrote Soros.
Soros even accused Facebook of developing “an informal mutual assistance operation or agreement” with President Trump in exchange for protection against attacks from regulators and the media. A <a class="css-1g7m0tk" title="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/george-soros-facebook-trump-election-conspiracy-2020-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Facebook spokesman told Business Insider </a>that this charge is “just plain wrong.”
“I believe that Mr. Trump and Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, realize that their interests are aligned — the president’s in winning elections, Mr. Zuckerberg’s in making money,” asserted Soros. “Let’s look at the evidence: In 2016, Facebook provided the Trump campaign with embedded staff who helped to optimize its advertising program. (Hillary Clinton’s campaign was also approached, but it declined to embed a Facebook team in her campaign’s operations.) Brad Parscale, the digital director of Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign and now his campaign manager for 2020, said that Facebook helped Mr. Trump and gave him the edge. This seems to have marked the beginning of a special relationship.”

Andrew Yang Campaigns Across New Hampshire Ahead Of Nation&#8217;s First Primary

WATCH: Andrew Yang Says ‘Facebook Is A Publisher,’ Will Make Them Ban ‘False Political Ads’

Well, that didn&#8217;t take long.
Democrats in Iowa, using a voting app ordered by the Iowa Democratic Party and designed by Democrats, failed in spectacular fashion on Monday to conduct the first-in-the-nation caucuses to ultimately decide the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee.
But wait. The Democrats aren&#8217;t to blame. Apparently, President Trump is.
&#8220;It might be helpful to have a President and government that understand technology so this sort of thing doesn’t happen,&#8221; candidate Andrew Yang wrote on Twitter.
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It might be helpful to have a President and government that understand technology so this sort of thing doesn’t happen.
&mdash; Andrew Yang🧢 (@AndrewYang) <a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewYang/status/1224572709918650369?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 4, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Yang, 45, made his fortune in the tech industry. But he didn&#8217;t explain how Trump perhaps better understanding technology would have prevented the debacle in Iowa.
In a statement early Tuesday, the Iowa Democratic Party blamed a “coding issue in the reporting system” for the problems, the Associated Press reported. &#8220;The problem kept party officials from releasing results from Monday’s caucus, the much-hyped kickoff to the 2020 primary. It was an embarrassing twist after months of promoting the contest as a chance for Democrats to find some clarity in a jumbled field with no clear front-runner.&#8221;
Top Trump officials also said there was no external influence on the app. “No one hacked into it, so this is more of a stress or load issue, as well as a reporting issue we’re seeing in Iowa,&#8221; <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dhs-acting-secretary-iowa-democratic-party-refused-help-testing-failed-caucus-app">said acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf</a> in an interview with Fox on Tuesday morning.
Conspiracy theories abound, including one in which Democrats are trying to shut down Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the socialist from Vermont who increasingly found himself atop the polls in Iowa.
Wrote Eoin Higgins, a senior editor for Common Dreams: &#8220;Iowa Democratic Party uses secretive app for caucus reporting — App stops working a few hours before caucus begins — Results trickle in but show dominating performance for Sanders, death knell for Biden camp — Counting now shut down by DNC for &#8216;quality control.&#8217; I have that right?&#8221;
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-Iowa Democratic Party uses secretive app for caucus reporting -App stops working a few hours before caucus begins -Results trickle in but show dominating performance for Sanders, death knell for Biden camp -Counting now shut down by DNC for &quot;quality control&quot;
I have that right?
&mdash; Eoin Higgins (@EoinHiggins_) <a href="https://twitter.com/EoinHiggins_/status/1224535221024034816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 4, 2020</a></blockquote>
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For his part, Trump put the blame squarely on Democrats in Iowa.
&#8220;The Democrat Party in Iowa really messed up, but the Republican Party did not. I had the largest re-election vote in the history of that great state, by far, beating President Obama’s previous record by a lot. Also, 97% Plus of the vote! Thank you Iowa!&#8221; Trump wrote first thing in the morning.
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The Democrat Party in Iowa really messed up, but the Republican Party did not. I had the largest re-election vote in the history of that great state, by far, beating President Obama’s previous record by a lot. Also, 97% Plus of the vote! Thank you Iowa!
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1224702718754856960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 4, 2020</a></blockquote>
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And Trump said: &#8220;The Democrat Caucus is an unmitigated disaster. Nothing works, just like they ran the Country. Remember the 5 Billion Dollar Obamacare Website, that should have cost 2% of that. The only person that can claim a very big victory in Iowa last night is &#8216;Trump.'&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The Democrat Caucus is an unmitigated disaster. Nothing works, just like they ran the Country. Remember the 5 Billion Dollar Obamacare Website, that should have cost 2% of that. The only person that can claim a very big victory in Iowa last night is “Trump”.
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1224657196392370177?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 4, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Twitter users had a field day with Yang&#8217;s post.
&#8220;You want President Trump to step in and fix this mess for the Dem party? I&#8217;m sure he&#8217;d love to be asked,&#8221; wrote one user.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
You want President Trump to step in and fix this mess for the Dem party? I&#39;m sure he&#39;d love to be asked.
&mdash; Michael (@MkHmmr) <a href="https://twitter.com/MkHmmr/status/1224574929250717696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 4, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;It might be helpful to have a President who understands the President doesnt have anything to do with that,&#8221; wrote another.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
It might be helpful to have a President who understands the President doesnt have anything to do with that.
&mdash; Dusty (@dustopian) <a href="https://twitter.com/dustopian/status/1224657008730824704?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 4, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Yes, Republicans did not have any issue. The democrats ran their caucus and simply messed it up every single step of the way. Worse it will be suspect even after they eventually get some results. Democrats have a plan, unfortunately it is a disaster,&#8221; wrote a third.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Yes, Republicans did not have any issue. The democrats ran their caucus and simply messed it up every single step of the way. Worse it will be suspect even after they eventually get some results.
Democrats have a plan, unfortunately it is a disaster.
&mdash; politically_matt (@MattPolitically) <a href="https://twitter.com/MattPolitically/status/1224676670642237440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 4, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
And a fourth summed it all up. &#8220;The President doesn’t get to run the caucus, dumbass. Might be helpful to have a president who understands how elections work or what states or political parties are.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The President doesn’t get to run the caucus, dumbass. Might be helpful to have a president who understands how elections work or what states or political parties are.
&mdash; Ali (@ali) <a href="https://twitter.com/ali/status/1224580659030765568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 4, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Presidential Candidates Hit The Soapbox At The Iowa State Fair

Democratic Presidential Candidate Knows Who’s To Blame For Iowa Vote Debacle — It’s President Trump!

Democratic National Committee

Democratic Party

Donald Trump

Iowa

Late on Saturday, the Des Moines Register and CNN decided not to release their poll of Monday’s Iowa caucuses, triggering supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders and entrepreneur Andrew Yang to start a trend on Twitter theorizing that the reason it was canceled was so people would not know how successful their candidates were.
That rumor was false. As <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/des-moines-register-pulls-gold-standard-iowa-poll-after-potential-n1128366">NBC News</a> reports, the poll’s publication was canceled after a supporter of Pete Buttigieg claimed that Buttigieg&#8217;s name was left off a list of candidates. The supporter alerted the Buttigieg campaign, which in turn alerted Ann Selzer, who was conducting the poll. Selzer, the Register and CNN jointly decided that they were unsure as to whether results had been compromised and thus canceled the poll’s publication.
Carol Hunter, the Register&#8217;s executive editor, told NBC News, &#8220;Nothing is more important to the Register and its polling partners than the integrity of the Iowa Poll. Therefore, the partners made the difficult decision to not to move forward with releasing the Iowa Poll.&#8221; She added, &#8220;The Register has published the Iowa Poll for 76 years, and it is considered the gold standard in political polling. Selzer &amp; Co., which conducts the poll, is recognized for its excellence in polling. It is imperative whenever an Iowa Poll is released that there is confidence that the data accurately reflects Iowans&#8217; opinions.”
NBC News <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/conspiracy-theories-swirl-over-canceled-iowa-poll-pushed-sanders-yang-n1128621">noted</a>, “Sanders and Yang supporters flooded the hashtag, &#8216;#ReleaseThePoll,&#8217; which was one of the top trends on Saturday night. Data collected by the open-source Twitter analytics tool Hoaxy showed that the primary drivers of the hashtag were Sanders fans alleging conspiracy theories about the poll, followed by Yang fans pushing one of their own.”
NBC News added, “The engagement with early tweets using #ReleaseThePoll was enough to catapult the hashtag into Twitter’s trending topics section — and onto the screens of more American Twitter users. The trending topic was pushed even further up the trending topics leaderboard by supporters of Yang, who hopped onto the hashtag 45 minutes later with an identical conspiracy theory, claiming with no evidence that the poll was pulled because it showed Yang jumping up several points.”
Jennifer Grygiel, an assistant professor of communications at Syracuse, commented,  “Conspiracy theorists are looking for unusual events such as this. They have a history of happening a certain way. An unusual media event already primes the public because it’s unusual … Once a conspiracy theory launches, alternative conspiracy theories could quickly surface to counter them. The result is a toxic disinformation soup.”
As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/report-biden-campaign-tells-supporters-sanders-people-getting-ugly-get-online-and-fight-back">reported</a> last week:
<blockquote>The Biden campaign, concerned about the nasty online attacks on their candidate by supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders, is urging their own supporters to get online and defend Biden from the attacks. <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-28/biden-campaign-urges-supporters-to-defend-him-on-social-media">Bloomberg</a> reports that the Biden campaign told supporters that Sanders people were “getting ugly” and it had to “step up its game.” Bloomberg notes, “The message was confirmed by campaign national press secretary TJ Ducklo.”
Bloomberg notes, “Sanders’ supporters are markedly more aggressive than those of any other campaign, going to Twitter and Facebook to enthusiastically defend the Vermont senator and sometimes attack the supporters of other candidates.”</blockquote>

Protest Against The Closure Of Hahnemann University Hospital In Philadelphia

Sanders, Yang Supporters Push Conspiracy Theory About Iowa Poll. It Isn’t True.

Political nerds, rejoice! We here at The Daily Wire have been looking forward to this day for seemingly forever. We have been tracking presidential primary <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/who-will-win-democratic-primary-latest-2020-josh-hammer">polling and analytical trends</a>. We started a weekly election/impeachment-themed newsletter for our subscribers (<a href="http://lp.dailywire.com/getelectionwire/">sign up here!</a>). We prepared <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/where-does-joe-biden-stand-issues-heres-everything-josh-hammer">detailed</a> <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/where-does-bernie-sanders-stand-issues-heres-josh-hammer">profiles</a> for all the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/where-does-elizabeth-warren-stand-issues-heres-josh-hammer">leading</a> <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/where-does-pete-buttigieg-stand-issues-heres-josh-hammer">candidates</a> in the Democratic Party&#8217;s 2020 <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/where-does-andrew-yang-stand-issues-heres-josh-hammer">presidential</a> <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/where-does-michael-bloomberg-stand-on-the-issues-heres-everything-you-need-to-know">primary</a> <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/where-does-amy-klobuchar-stand-issues-heres-josh-hammer">field</a>.
And now we are finally here. The <a href="https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2020/02/03/iowa-caucus-election-2020-live-coverage-democratic-candidates-results-photos-video/4618248002/">Iowa caucuses tonight</a> will provide politicos across the country with the first tangible results of this already-chaotic process. We will finally move beyond the realm of mere armchair quarterback punditry and enter the realm of numbers, percentages, and statistics.
Here is what I will personally be watching for tonight.
1. Will Bernie Sanders position himself to win Iowa and New Hampshire back-to-back? The Soviet Union-honeymooning socialist leads by 4% over Joe Biden in the RealClearPolitics statewide <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/ia/iowa_democratic_presidential_caucus-6731.html">polling average</a>, as we enter caucus day. Sanders is now also the <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/nh/new_hampshire_democratic_presidential_primary-6276.html">firm and unequivocal favorite</a> for next week&#8217;s first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary, and all eyes will be attuned tonight to see if he can position himself well to open this primary season by wining the first two states in back-to-back fashion. Since the advent of the modern presidential primary process in 1972, no candidate who has won both Iowa and New Hampshire in back-to-back fashion has gone on to lose his/her party&#8217;s presidential nomination. If Sanders can pull off the feat, then we can bet on the more &#8220;moderate&#8221;/Clintonian forces of the Democratic National Committee establishment entering something closely akin to a state of depression.
2. Can Joe Biden pull it out and re-emerge as the field&#8217;s clear frontrunner? Ever since the unofficial start of the primary process, and certainly since the first Democratic presidential debate last summer, Biden has been viewed (with the perhaps brief exception of a September/October 2019 surge from Elizabeth Warren) as the frontrunner for his party&#8217;s 2020 presidential nomination. It is no longer clear if that is the case — Sanders leads in both Iowa and New Hampshire, Biden&#8217;s South Carolina &#8220;firewall&#8221; seems like an increasingly risky wager (harkening us all back to Rudy Giuliani in Florida in 2008), and election betting market PredictIt now features Sanders as an <a href="https://www.predictit.org/markets/detail/3633/Who-will-win-the-2020-Democratic-presidential-nomination">increasingly clear favorite</a> over Biden. Biden could really use a victory tonight to stanch the bleeding, and anything worse than a runner-up finish to Sanders would surely be viewed as a disaster at Biden campaign headquarters.
3. Will Elizabeth Warren resuscitate her ailing campaign? Warren emerged over the latter parts of the summer and early fall as a frontrunner in both Iowa and New Hampshire, and many pundits accordingly pegged her as the de facto favorite to ultimately secure the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Suffice it to say those predictions have not aged well. Warren&#8217;s campaign has been in something of a prolonged free fall since October, and she enters caucus night in a disappointing fourth place in the RealClearPolitics statewide <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/ia/iowa_democratic_presidential_caucus-6731.html">polling average</a>. A surprising victory is not out of the realm of possibility, but merely beating Biden or Sanders, at this point, would surely be seen as a moral victory for Warren that would buttress her chances in New Hampshire.
4. Will Pete Buttigieg beat one of the &#8220;big three?&#8221; Buttigieg has surpassed Warren in the statewide polling average in Iowa, but in many respects, his national momentum is lagging and it seems that his moment has passed. The former South Bend, Indiana mayor is a native Midwesterner, and over-performing tonight in Iowa is something that Buttigieg likely would need to feel even remotely confident about his languishing chances for the nomination.
5. Can Amy Klobuchar crack the top four? Klobuchar, from Iowa&#8217;s neighboring state Minnesota, has staked much of her long-shot bid on a strong Iowa finish. She consistently over-performs in televised debate formats and is a favorite of her party&#8217;s intellectual chattering class — as perhaps best embodied by her recent co-endorsement from The New York Times&#8217; influential editorial board. If Klobuchar can beat at least Buttigieg or Warren tonight, that will amount to a big victory for her.
&nbsp;
RELATED: <a href="http://lp.dailywire.com/getelectionwire/">Sign up here for Daily Wire Editor-at-Large Josh Hammer’s weekly newsletter on election news, polling data, and analysis: “Election Wire.”</a>
RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/who-will-win-democratic-primary-latest-2020-josh-hammer">Who Will Win The Democratic Primary? The Latest On 2020 Presidential Primary Polling.</a>

Iowa caucuses day

What To Watch For During Tonight’s Iowa Caucuses

Amy Klobuchar

Elizabeth Warren

Pete Buttigieg

The politically incorrect comedian Dave Chappelle has bucked the liberal trend once again by declaring that Trump supporters are not his enemy.
Speaking to reporters this week in Iowa about why he supports presidential candidate Andrew Yang, Chappelle says that he welcomes people as fans from both sides of the political aisle, while also admitting that he understands why people voted for Trump. Take a look:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Dave Chappelle says why he is supporting <a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewYang?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AndrewYang</a>. 
“I don’t look at Trump supporters as my enemy at all. I understand why people voted for Trump I understand people are desperate. And I think that Andrew is right you run against the reasons that Trump got elected.” <a href="https://t.co/jcAb1cDfPQ">pic.twitter.com/jcAb1cDfPQ</a>
&mdash; Armando Tonatiuh Torres-García (@GarciaReports) <a href="https://twitter.com/GarciaReports/status/1222358155952381953?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 29, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;I don&#8217;t look at Trump supporters as my enemy at all,&#8221; Chappelle told reporters. &#8220;I understand why people voted for Trump, I understand people are desperate. And I think that Andrew is right you run against the reasons that Trump got elected. I got friends on both sides of the political aisle, I got fans on both sides of the political aisle.&#8221;
As to why he supports Andrew Yang, Chappelle said the candidate has brought many &#8220;good ideas&#8221; to the table that nobody has previously addressed.
&#8220;A lot of people say professionally it&#8217;s not wise to support any candidate, but this idea is so good, that I think it should exist,&#8221; said Chappelle. &#8220;And I think the fountainhead of many of the good ideas on the table this year are coming from a single source — Andrew Yang. And for some reason, no one&#8217;s paying attention. This guy is the origin of a platform that really does address where I think the country needs to go.&#8221;
Chappelle announced his support for the &#8220;Yang Gang&#8221; earlier this month, when he pledged to perform several shows for his campaign.
“Thank you [Dave Chappelle] and welcome to the #yanggang,” Yang said in response to his endorsement. “You are the best. Let’s do this for our kids.”
While Dave Chappelle can in no way be classified as a conservative, he certainly has allied with conservatives in their fight against cancel culture. In October, while accepting the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, he gave a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-video-released-of-dave-chappelles-fierce-hilarious-defense-of-first-amendment">fierce defense</a> of free speech.
“I like not knowin’ what’s going to happen. I like makin’ memories. Sometimes I do all this crazy s*** around my colleagues just so they can tell their friends I did it. Rather than talk about myself, just briefly, I want to just talk about my genre. Stand-up comedy is an incredibly American genre,” he said. “I don’t think any other country can produce this many comedians. Unbeknownst to many people in this audience, I don’t think there’s opinion that exists in this country that is not represented in a comedy club by somebody. Each and every one of you has a chance of bein’ in the room.”
“We watch you guys fight, but when we’re together, we talk it out. I know comics that are very racist, and I watch ‘em on stage, and everyone’s laughin’, I’m like, that motherf***** means it,” Chappelle continued. “Don’t get mad at ‘em, don’t hate ‘em, we go upstairs and have a beer and sometimes I even appreciate the artistry that they paint their racist opinions with.”
<div>
“Man, it’s not that serious. The First Amendment is first for a reason. The Second Amendment is just in case the first one doesn’t work out,” he added.
</div>

US-ENTERTAINMENT-HUMOR-MARK TWAIN AWARD

WATCH: Dave Chappelle Says ‘I Don’t See Trump Supporters As My Enemy’

Cancel culture

Dave Chappelle

Free Speech

Political Correctness

Trump Supporters

Presidential candidate Andrew Yang&#8217;s wife, Evelyn Yang, gave a heartbreaking <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/16/politics/evelyn-yang-interview-assault/index.html">interview</a> on Thursday in which she discussed being sexually assaulted by her OB-GYN during her first pregnancy.
Speaking with CNN&#8217;s Dana Bash, Evelyn Yang said that Dr. Robert Hadden in 2012 began his assault by asking her &#8220;inappropriate questions&#8221; about her sex life, which then morphed into something more grotesque.
&#8220;There was absolutely no premise for that line of questioning, and it seemed like he just wanted to hear about me talking about sex,&#8221; she told <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/16/politics/evelyn-yang-interview-assault/index.html">CNN</a>. &#8220;What I kept sticking to was this: &#8216;OK, so my doctor is pervy. I have a pervy doctor, but I&#8217;m going to focus on having a healthy baby,&#8217; and the idea of changing doctors was overwhelming for me.&#8221;
As time passed, the visits became both longer and more frequent, and Evelyn began to suspect that they were unnecessary.
&#8220;The examinations became longer, more frequent, and I learned that they were unnecessary most of the time,&#8221; she recalled. &#8220;I suppose I just need to trust him. I put up with some inappropriate behavior that I didn&#8217;t know at the time was straight-up sexual abuse slash sexual assault until much later. And I regret having put up with that because it ended up in a sexual assault that was indisputable.&#8221;
The &#8220;worst assault&#8221; by Dr. Hadden occurred when Yang was seven months pregnant during another &#8220;routine&#8221; exam. Her story is gut-wrenching.
&#8220;I was in the exam room and I was dressed and ready to go. And then, at the last minute, he kind of made up an excuse,&#8221; she revealed. &#8220;He said something about &#8212; &#8216;You might need a C-section,&#8217; and then he proceeded to grab me over to him and undress me and examine me internally ungloved. And at first, I was a little bit like, &#8216;What&#8217;s going on here?'&#8221;
&#8220;And there was no one else in the room?&#8221; Bash asked the now-tearful Yang.
&#8220;No, no,&#8221; she replied. &#8220;In fact, when I think back to most of our exams, I don&#8217;t think there was somebody in the room. I imagined myself as someone being, you know, like I would throw a chair at him and run out yelling bloody murder. I just kind of froze like a deer in headlights, just frozen. I knew it was happening. I could feel it. I remember trying to fix my eyes on a spot on the wall and just trying to avoid seeing his face as he was assaulting me, just waiting for it to be over.&#8221;
Evelyn Yang kept the horrific experience from her husband and suffered privately with the story until another victim pressed charges against Dr. Hadden. She ultimately did not want her husband to feel guilty for not having been able to attend the exams due to traveling for work.
Later, she discovered there were multiple victims when Dr. Hadden left his practice. In fact, a total of 18 women had slapped him with several felony charges, a plea deal was ultimately reached and Dr. Hadden lost his medical license while being forced to register as a low-level sex offender.
&#8220;It was this sense of relief, of finally realizing that I wasn&#8217;t alone in it,&#8221; she said. &#8220;This was a serial predator and he just picked me as his prey. He was getting off with a slap on the wrist, basically. We were betrayed twice&#8230; It&#8217;s like getting slapped in the face and punched in the gut.&#8221;
&#8220;My personal life and this growing public life &#8212; they&#8217;re not separate,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;In this case, my experience with the sexual assault and then what happened &#8212; all that happened afterward is such a powerful and upsetting example of the truth that women are living with every day. And I just happen to have a platform to talk about it. I need to use that voice. I feel like it&#8217;s something that&#8217;s an obligation but also a privilege and a gift that I get to share my story now and also help other women.&#8221;
After the story aired, Andrew Yang <a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewYang/status/1217972359849627648?s=20">tweeted out</a> in support of his wife, saying, &#8220;I love my wife very very much.&#8221;
<iframe title="Evelyn Yang reveals she was sexually assaulted while pregnant" width="500" height="375" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wMbIQgCRtjw?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

US-VOTE-2020-DEMOCRATS-DEBATE

Horrific: Andrew Yang’s Wife Says OB-GYN Sexually Assaulted Her During First Pregnancy

On Tuesday, comedian Dave Chappelle announced his support for 2020 Democratic Party presidential candidate Andrew Yang.
“I’m Yang Gang!” Chappelle said in a press release, according to <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/comedian-dave-chapelle-endorses-andrew-yang-im-yang-gang">The Daily Beast</a>.
“Thank you [Dave Chappelle] and welcome to the #yanggang,” Yang captioned a photo of himself standing alongside Chappelle. “You are the best. Let’s do this for our kids.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Thank you <a href="https://twitter.com/DaveChappelle?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DaveChappelle</a> and welcome to the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/yanggang?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#yanggang</a>. You are the best. Let’s do this for our kids. 🙏👍 <a href="https://t.co/HGznFG00kr">pic.twitter.com/HGznFG00kr</a>
&mdash; Andrew Yang🧢 (@AndrewYang) <a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewYang/status/1217163311579639808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 14, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Earlier on Tuesday, an excited Yang announced the endorsement to his supporters. &#8220;I&#8217;m going to be endorsed in about two hours by Dave Chappelle!&#8221; he said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewYang?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AndrewYang</a>: &quot;I’m going to be endorsed in about two hours by Dave Chappelle!&quot; <a href="https://t.co/dBo2RSXYdM">pic.twitter.com/dBo2RSXYdM</a>
&mdash; The Hill (@thehill) <a href="https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1217153364653486088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 14, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
According to The Hill, the comic will headline upcoming shows in support of the Democratic candidate, set for January 29 and 30 in South Carolina.
“Dave’s team reached out to our team, and they were thrilled to put the two of us together,” Yang told <a href="https://www.necn.com/news/politics/primary-source/yang-on-why-hes-not-worried-about-qualifying-for-next-debate/2216729/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">New England Cable News</a> last week, <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/478194-dave-chappelle-endorses-andrew-yang-in-democratic-primary">The Hill</a> noted. “We sat down and talked about his concerns for the country and what we need to do to for the next generation. Dave’s a dad like I am. And then after we met, he said, ‘Look, I want to help, and what can I do to help?’&#8221;
The former &#8220;Chappelle Show&#8221; star has been an unapologetic proponent of free speech.
In October, while accepting the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center, Chappelle offered a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-video-released-of-dave-chappelles-fierce-hilarious-defense-of-first-amendment">fierce and hilarious defense of the First Amendment</a>.
“I like not knowin’ what’s going to happen. I like makin’ memories. Sometime I do all this crazy s*** around my colleagues just so they can tell their friends I did it. Rather than talk about myself, just briefly, I want to just talk about my genre. Stand-up comedy is an incredibly American genre,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I don’t think any other country can produce this many comedians. Unbeknownst to many people in this audience, I don’t think there’s opinion that exists in this country that is not represented in a comedy club by somebody. Each and every one of you has a chance of bein’ in the room.”
“We watch you guys fight, but when we’re together, we talk it out. I know comics that are very racist, and I watch ‘em on stage, and everyone’s laughin’, I’m like, that mother f***** means it,&#8221; Chappelle continued. &#8220;Don’t get mad at ‘em, don’t hate ‘em, we go upstairs and have a beer and sometimes I even appreciate the artistry that they paint their racist opinions with.”
<div>
“Man, it’s not that serious. The First Amendment is first for a reason. The Second Amendment is just in case the first one doesn’t work out,&#8221; he added.
The comedian has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/leftists-enraged-dave-chappelle-telling-jokes-amanda-prestigiacomo">ruffled feathers</a> in the media for making jokes about media-protected groups. For example, Chappelle has been routinely hit by comedy writers for jokes about the LGBT lobby or transgenderism.
Currently, Yang is struggling in the polls. Providing election coverage for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/who-will-win-democratic-primary-latest-2020-josh-hammer">The Daily Wire</a>, Daily Wire Editor-at-Large Josh Hammer said earlier Tuesday that &#8220;it would be a fool’s errand to predict anyone other than Biden as the likely Democratic presidential nominee — at least until we start getting concrete results from Iowa, New Hampshire, and so forth.&#8221;
</div>
Hammer also highlighted wealthy Michael Bloomberg as &#8220;a candidate to keep a close eye upon.&#8221;
&#8220;Electoral prediction market website <a href="https://www.predictit.org/markets/detail/3633/Who-will-win-the-2020-Democratic-presidential-nomination">PredictIt</a> now has Biden as its frontrunner, although Sanders is in second by a substantial margin. After a large gap, Warren, Bloomberg, and Buttigieg then all distantly follow. The Warren campaign collapse from its erstwhile frontrunner perch is truly something to behold,&#8221; noted Hammer.

Dave Chappelle Backs, Announces Upcoming Shows For Andrew Yang

First Amendment

Earlier this week, former Vice President Joe Biden took an apparent swipe at blue-collar workers, declaring that coal miners should “learn how to program.”
“I come from a family and an area where it’s coal mining in Scranton,” Biden told a crowd in Derry, New Hampshire, as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/democrat-joe-biden-takes-swipe-at-blue-collar-workers-learn-how-to-program">The Daily Wire</a> previously reported. “Anybody who can go down 300-3,000 feet in a mine sure as hell can learn to program as well,” continued Biden, later elaborating that anyone “who can throw coal into a furnace can learn how to program, for God’s sake.”
But on Thursday, Andrew Yang came to the defense of blue-collar workers, saying that the country should let people “do the kind of work they actually want to do” instead of telling people “you all need to become coders,” according to <a href="https://twitter.com/NicoleSganga/status/1212573634453217280">CBS</a>. Yang then made an observation that has seemingly eluded Biden: “Maybe Americans don’t all want to learn how to code.”
After the event was over, Yang also told reporters that although he gets “along very well with Joe,” he thinks it is “completely unrealistic and unproductive to even recommend that all Americans learn to code or all former coal miners learn to code.”
“The reality is that only 8% of Americans work in STEM fields today, and it’s not realistic to suggest that the other 92% somehow join that 8%,” Yang continued. “We need to instead be thinking about what kind of opportunities people want to do, not that the market suggests that it has a need for.”
On an episode of <a href="https://twitter.com/andrewyang/status/1149080948576870400?lang=en">The View</a> in July, Yang discussed how politicians often talk about retraining or educating workers employed in industries at risk of becoming obsolete, but emphasized how these efforts are typically unsuccessful. “I looked at the studies around retraining manufacturing workers in the Midwest, and the results were very very bad — 0% to 15% success rates.”
According to <a href="https://thehill.com/changing-america/enrichment/education/476391-biden-tells-coal-miners-to-learn-to-code">The Hill</a>, another reason retraining programs lack effectiveness in the coal mining industry, in particular, is because many people end up with jobs that do not pay as well as had their former jobs. 
“Although they are often touted as a solution, retraining programs have a questionable record of success, some displaced coal workers do transition into other fields or industries, but critics say that the jobs that former coal workers usually find tend to pay only $12 to $15 dollars per hour as opposed to the approximate $75,000 a year salary that coal workers had while working in the mines.”
It is unclear how much Democrats’ focusing on the economy in this manner could possibly help them in a general election, as the current <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cnbcs-jim-cramer-on-jobs-report-doesnt-matter-whether-you-hate-trump-these-are-the-best-numbers-of-our-lives">unemployment rate</a> sits at 3.6%. 
While this is the first time Biden has blatantly suggested that coal miners should “learn how to program,” the former vice president has made similarly dismissive comments about blue-collar jobs in the past. 
At a Democratic presidential debate last year, Politico&#8217;s Tim Alberta asked Biden whether he would be willing to “displace thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of blue-collar workers in the interest of transitioning to a greener economy,” as previously reported by The Daily Wire. 
“The answer is yes,” Biden replied. “The answer is yes, because the opportunity for those workers is to switch to high-paying jobs. We should, in fact, be making sure right now that every new building built is energy contained, that it doesn’t leak energy, that in fact we should be providing tax credits for people to be able to make their homes turn to solar power.”

‘Completely Unrealistic And Unproductive’: Yang Swipes At Biden For Blue-Collar Coding Remarks

Democratic Party presidential hopefuls have begun announcing fundraising totals for the last three months of 2019, and so far, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) leads the pack, having raised $34.5 million, according to his campaign. 
Although many people dismissed Sanders’ chances after he suffered a heart attack in October, the self-described democratic socialist has proven that his campaign will remain financially viable going into early primary states and beyond. Sanders also recently announced that he had surpassed a total of five million total contributions, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/02/us/politics/bernie-sanders-fundraising.html">The New York Times</a>. 
Martin LeWinter, Sanders’ cardiologist, announced earlier this week that the candidate “has been doing very well since” the heart attack, according to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/12/30/792436711/3-months-after-heart-attack-sanders-doctors-say-he-s-fit-to-be-president">NPR</a>. Furthermore, LeWinter is “confident” that Sanders “has the mental and physical stamina to fully undertake the rigors of the presidency.&#8221;
Last month, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/26/can-bernie-sanders-win-2020-election-president-089636">Politico </a>reported that Democratic insiders have begun treating Sanders’ campaign with more seriousness for a couple of reasons: “First, Warren has recently fallen in national and early state surveys. Second, Sanders has withstood the ups and downs of the primary, including a heart attack. At the same time, other candidates with once-high expectations, such as Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Beto O’Rourke, have dropped out or languished in single digits in the polls.” 
Former U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro also dropped out earlier today, according to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-democratic-presidential-candidate-julian-castro-explains-why-hes-dropping-out">The Daily Wire</a>. 
If Sanders were to win the Democratic primary, it’s possible that general election voters would be dissuaded by the high cost of his plans, which <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/bernie-sanders-expensive-spending-proposals">City Journal</a> estimates will cost as much as $97.5 trillion. 
Andrew Yang, the entrepreneur who began his campaign with very little in the way of fundraising infrastructure, announced in a statement on Thursday that his campaign had raised $16.5 million in the final three months of 2019 — with over $1.3 million of the total coming from people donating on New Year&#8217;s Eve. The campaign also announced it had surpassed one million total contributions. 
Yang campaign chief Nick Ryan said in a statement that “At every turn in this race, Andrew Yang continues to exceed expectations whether it&#8217;s in terms of grassroots fundraising, making the debates, early state polling, or the ability to draw big crowds,” according to <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/02/yang-fundraising-fourth-quarter-092584">Politico</a>. Similar to Sanders’ campaign haul, the Yang campaign’s fundraising efforts have therefore positioned him to remain financially viable.
Although Yang has garnered excitement for his signature plan — a universal basic income of $1,000 a month for every U.S. citizen at least 18 years old — experts believe the program would cost $3.8 trillion per year, according to the <a href="https://nypost.com/2018/07/12/universal-basic-income-would-cost-taxpayers-3-8t-per-year-study/">New York Post</a>. The candidate is also currently at risk of not making the final debate held before the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses, which will be held on February 3, and only has until January 10 to reach a 5% threshold in several more qualifying polls.
Pete Buttigieg, who ended his term as mayor of South Bend, Indiana, on Tuesday, announced a fundraising haul of $24.7 million, which is more than he raised in the previous quarter but less than he raised between April and June of 2019, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/01/us/politics/Pete-Buttigieg-fundraising.html">the Times</a> previously reported.  
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and former Vice President Joe Biden have not yet released fundraising totals for the fourth quarter of 2019. However, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elizabeth-warren-campaign-announced-quarterly-fundraising-total-2019-12">Business Insider</a> reported last month that Warren had only raised $17 million, and that she needed supporters to contribute more to reach a $20 million goal.

Democratic Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders Campaigns in Iowa

Bernie Sanders Leads Dems Fundraising Efforts, Andrew Yang Gains Momentum

Money In Politics

The Democratic National Committee is very happy with their system of determining which candidates for the party&#8217;s presidential nomination make the debate stage and there&#8217;s nothing Andrew Yang can do about it, the DNC says.
According to Fox News, the DNC &#8220;shot down&#8221; Yang&#8217;s request that the party hold several of its own polls ahead of the organization&#8217;s final debate in order to correct what Yang believes is a dearth of diversity in both ethnicity and platform.
Yang was the only minority candidate on the DNC&#8217;s debate stage in December, and then only because of a last-minute groundswell of support that put him slightly over the top in several national polls. He was also the youngest, by far, and the only Democratic contender to deviate even slightly from two prescribed platform: either &#8220;mainstream&#8221; or &#8220;Establishment,&#8221; or far-left and progressive. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) did earn a spot in the debate but ended her presidential campaign just days beforehand.
In a memo leaked last week, Yang pressured DNC leader Tom Perez to commission a series of polls, conducted on behalf of the DNC, in Iowa, in order to get a better read on whom the population there was considering voting for.
“With the upcoming holidays and meager number of polls currently out in the field, a diverse set of candidates might be absent from the stage in Des Moines for reasons out of anyone’s control,” Yang wrote. “This is a troubling prospect for our party. Regardless of the DNC’s best intentions, voters would cry foul and could even make unfounded claims of bias and prejudice.”
The suggestion definitely benefits Yang. Although he made the last debate in California, he&#8217;s unlikely to make the January debate &#8212; he is just shy of the polling numbers needed to qualify. Only former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg have crossed the threshold.
If the last name &#8212; Klobuchar &#8212; sounds out of place on that list, it&#8217;s because the DNC&#8217;s decision over who makes the January debate stage is based on polling taken in early December, and then, only on select polls that meet the DNC&#8217;s mysterious qualifications. That puts upstart candidates like Yang, who have relatively little name recognition among voters disconnected from the Internet and who seem to gain traction in short bursts, at a disadvantage; even if he suddenly skyrockets in popularity in Iowa, he&#8217;s already missed the &#8220;right&#8221; window to qualify for the debate.
Yang&#8217;s solution was to have DNC-commissioned &#8220;temperature checks&#8221; of Iowa voters instead, so that the DNC could get a sense of which candidates Iowa voters actually want to see go head-to-head.
“Hence, I propose a simple solution: between now and January 10, the DNC should commission four early state qualifying polls in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, where all the candidates have invested their time, resources and staff. It would provide an accurate snapshot of the current state of the race and where voters’ hearts and minds are, thus getting ahead of an imminent problem,&#8221; Yang wrote.
The DNC, on Monday, told Fox News that there is absolutely no way they&#8217;ll take Yang up on his offer.
“The DNC has been more than inclusive throughout this entire process with an expansive list of qualifying polls, including 26 polls for the December debate, more than half of which were state polls,” they told the news outlet.
&#8220;The DNC will not sponsor its own debate qualifying polls of presidential candidates during a primary. This would break with the long standing practice of both parties using independent polling for debate qualification, and it would be an inappropriate use of DNC resources that should be directed at beating Donald Trump,&#8221; they added.
In fairness to the DNC, they may not be dismissing Yang out of hand so much as dismissing the cost. The DNC has just around $9 million cash on hand, and fundraising has been slow to non-existent. The Republican National Committee, by contrast, has more than $60 million cash on hand.

DNC Denies Andrew Yang’s Request For More, Better Polling For Future Debates

In a development that is already causing some on the Left to hit the panic button, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who was a Republican before he was a Democrat, has officially thrown his hat in the ring for the Democratic presidential nomination — and he has immediately made a splash in the polls, overtaking almost all of the other Democratic candidates. While most believe he has no shot of winning either the primary or the election, some are worried that the moderate billionaire&#8217;s presence in the primary will help get Donald Trump re-elected.
A new <a href="https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/472629-bloomberg-overtakes-harris-in-new-poll">Hill-HarrisX poll</a> released Monday found that Bloomberg comes into the Democrats&#8217; 2020 primary race ahead of all but four of the other candidates.
With 6% of the Democratic vote, Bloomberg further buries struggling California Sen. Kamala Harris, who sits at just 2% with Bloomberg in the picture, as well as entrepreneur Andrew Yang, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Julian Castro, and Tom Steyer, all of whom likewise manage just 2%.
The Hill/HarrisX poll found former Vice President Joe Biden maintaining a healthy lead over the other contenders with 31% support. Democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) sits in second with 15%, less than half of the support Biden is drawing, while Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who briefly enjoyed the Democratic frontrunner status, is down another five points from mid-November to just 10%.
The only other candidate to beat out Bloomberg is South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D), who has gained two points in the poll since a few weeks ago and now sits at 9%, just a point below Warren. All the other Democratic candidates manage just 1% or less.
The survey comes as two candidates recently dropped out — former Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D) — while billionaire Tom Steyer jumped in. 
Bloomberg&#8217;s entrance into the race has some on the Left worried about the larger implications. While he&#8217;s not widely consider a true contender, his status, economic resources, and more moderate political positions could end up impacting the race in negative ways for those wanting to see Trump do down.
In an op-ed for The Hill published Sunday, Paul Bledsoe explains why Bloomberg, while unable to win, &#8220;<a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/472486-bloomberg-cant-win-but-he-could-help-reelect-trump">could help reelect Trump</a>.&#8221;
&#8220;For most Democrats, rightly fixated on beating Donald Trump, <a class="rollover-people-link" href="https://thehill.com/people/michael-bloomberg" data-nid="440971">Michael Bloomberg</a>’s campaign for President is about the last thing they need,&#8221; writes Bledsoe. &#8220;The bitter irony is that Bloomberg, a mega-billionaire, lifelong Republican, and New York conservative, has no chance of actually winning this year’s populist-leaning Democratic nomination himself. But his candidacy holds a host of dangers for Democrats and could complicate their efforts to defeat Trump.&#8221;
Bloomberg&#8217;s presence in the Democratic primary &#8220;risks further dividing Democrats over issues of extreme wealth and economic fairness, emboldening far left candidates like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and their supporters who see Bloomberg as the embodiment of the problem,&#8221; Bledsoe suggests. &#8220;In fact, Bloomberg’s money-fueled campaign seems to mirror or even legitimize Trump’s political approach of 2016.&#8221; 
Most &#8220;dangerous&#8221; for Democrats, Bledsoe argues, is Bloomberg’s potential to wage a &#8220;massive TV ad&#8221; campaign that may allow him to &#8220;purchase just enough support in the huge Super Tuesday and other now early mega-primaries to prevent the Democrats from giving any single candidate a majority of delegates.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gop-impeachment-report-heres-all-the-evidence-democrats-are-ignoring">Related: GOP Impeachment Report: Here’s All The Evidence Democrats Are Ignoring</a>

Bloomberg Shakes Up Race: Blows By Most Democrats, Sparks Worries Of Helping Elect Trump

Kamala Harris

Democratic presidential hopeful Andrew Yang continued to slam MSNBC on Sunday for treating him unfairly both during the Democratic National Committee&#8217;s (DNC) presidential debates, as well as in their campaign coverage throughout the primary season.
&#8220;Americans tuned in the debate earlier this week and they saw I got called on less than any other candidate including candidates that I am polling higher than and the questions I did get had virtually nothing to do with the core ideas of my campaign,&#8221; Yang told news anchor Ana Cabrera during an appearance on &#8220;CNN Newsroom.&#8221; &#8220;And if this were an isolated incident that would be one thing, but if you go back over the last number of months, MSNBC has literally omitted me from over a dozen fundraising and polling graphics.&#8221;
Yang was the candidate who spoke the single least amount during the DNC&#8217;s fifth primary debate that was presented jointly by MSNBC and The Washington Post on Wednesday. Yang only spoke 1,301 words during the entire debate, per data compiled by <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-fifth-democratic-debate-in-6-charts/">FiveThirtyEight</a>. Accordingly, he spoke 10% less than financier Tom Steyer, who received the second lowest amount of speaking time, and nearly 50% less than frontrunners former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
He also spoke for less amount of time than the other candidates, clocking in at only six minutes and 48 seconds. By contrast, Steyer spoke for eight minutes and 24 seconds, while Warren received 13 minutes and 29 seconds of speaking time, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/20/us/elections/debate-speaking-time.html">The New York Times</a>.
&#8220;[It] is not about me. It&#8217;s about the 300,000 plus Americans who donated to and support my campaign and the millions of Americans who know we need to rewrite the rules of the 21st century economy to work for us,&#8221; Yang continued. &#8220;Think about those people donating $10, $20 of their hard earned money to put a candidate on the stage and then have MSNBC virtually ignore me for 32 minutes or when they tune in to MSNBC to see how we&#8217;re doing in the polls it’s like I don&#8217;t exist.&#8221;
&#8220;You can go through the records, you can see they&#8217;ve done it to me over and over again,&#8221; he added. &#8220;And I&#8217;m not the kind of guy who takes offense easily but at this point you have to call it like you see it.&#8221;
Prior to that debate, MSNBC notably excluded Yang from a graphic on where candidates were polling and another graphic previewing the debate. On Saturday, Yang went after the network for treating him unfairly.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Was asked to appear on <a href="https://twitter.com/MSNBC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@msnbc</a> this weekend &#8211; and told them that I’d be happy to after they apologize on-air, discuss and include our campaign consistent with our polling, and allow surrogates from our campaign as they do other candidates’. They think we need them. We don’t.
&mdash; Andrew Yang🧢 (@AndrewYang) <a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewYang/status/1198258580996214784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Was asked to appear on [MSNBC] this weekend &#8212; and told them that I&#8217;d be happy to after they apologize on-air, discuss and include our campaign consistent with our polling, and allow surrogates from our campaign as they do other candidates,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They think we need them. We don&#8217;t.&#8221;
Cabrera, however, pressed Yang on what he believed the reason was for a left-wing network to treat him differently than other Democratic candidates.
&#8220;It&#8217;s a bit of a mystery to me,&#8221; Yang replied. &#8220;I hope that when they come clean and acknowledge that they have been suppressing and ignoring me and my campaign for months maybe they&#8217;ll actually share with us what the rationale is.&#8221;
&#8220;All I know is I&#8217;m fighting for the American people,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;I&#8217;m here in Iowa. There are &#8212; I&#8217;m going to say hundreds. I lost track &#8212; hundreds of Iowans right behind me, as you can see, who know we need to actually work on solving the problems that got [President] Donald Trump elected. I have no idea why MSNBC does not want to have this conversation.&#8221;

Democratic Presidential Candidates Participate In Fourth Debate In Ohio

Andrew Yang Doubles Down On Demanding MSNBC To Apologize For ‘Suppressing’ Him

MSNBC

Former Vice President Joe Biden has been receiving widespread blowback from his Democratic primary rivals since voicing his support for a federal ban on recreational marijuana.
While speaking at a town hall event on Saturday, Biden said that while he believes that states &#8220;should be able to make a judgment to legalize marijuana&#8221; and even supports the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, his opposition to recreational marijuana use &#8220;hasn&#8217;t changed.&#8221;
&#8220;The truth of the matter is, there&#8217;s not nearly been enough evidence that has been acquired as to whether or not it is a gateway drug. It&#8217;s a debate, and I want a lot more before I legalize it nationally,&#8221; Biden told a crowd of his supporters. &#8220;I want to make sure we know a lot more about the science behind it.&#8221;
&#8220;It&#8217;s not irrational to do more scientific investigations to determine, which we have not done significantly enough, whether or not there are any things that relate to whether it&#8217;s a gateway drug or not,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;I don&#8217;t know enough to know whether it is.&#8221;
While the Democratic frontrunner is not the sole presidential hopeful calling to keep marijuana illegal under federal law, he has been receiving criticism from his primary challengers for the position.
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), who oversaw the prosecution of nearly 2,000 marijuana convictions while serving as San Francisco&#8217;s District Attorney, has recently flipped her stance on legalization of the drug and even joked about smoking while she was a student at Howard University.
&#8220;Let&#8217;s be clear: marijuana isn&#8217;t a gateway drug and should be legalized,&#8221; Harris responded to Biden. &#8220;Glad to see my bill with Rep. [Jerry] Nadler take the next step in the House this week.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Let&#39;s be clear: marijuana isn&#39;t a gateway drug and should be legalized. Glad to see my bill with Rep. Nadler take the next step in the House this week. <a href="https://t.co/d6BcMFlpYT">https://t.co/d6BcMFlpYT</a>
&mdash; Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) <a href="https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris/status/1196473557833932803?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 18, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Accordingly, the California lawmaker <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/2227/text?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22marijuana%22%5D%7D&amp;r=32&amp;s=1">introduced legislation</a> into the Senate in July which would not only decriminalize and deschedule marijuana, but also provide for reinvestment into certain individuals who have been convicted of drug crimes.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), a longtime advocate of marijuana legalization, also scolded Biden for his opposition.
&#8220;The American people are united on issue after issue,&#8221; Sanders said. &#8220;We must legalize marijuana now &#8212; and expunge all past marijuana convictions as a matter of racial and economic justice.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The American people are united on issue after issue. We must legalize marijuana now—and expunge all past marijuana convictions as a matter of racial and economic justice. <a href="https://t.co/NQjp7WOko3">https://t.co/NQjp7WOko3</a>
&mdash; Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenSanders/status/1196196982425038848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 17, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Less than a month ago, the self-styled democratic socialist unveiled a sweeping proposal where he would use his executive power as president of the United States to both federally legalize the drug and expunge related criminal convictions. Sanders argues that the law disproportionately targets minorities and &#8220;ruined the lives of millions of Americans,&#8221; as reported by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bernie-sanders-offers-marijuana-legalization-plan/2019/10/24/c44a45ba-f5c4-11e9-ad8b-85e2aa00b5ce_story.html">The Washington Post</a>.
Entrepreneur Andrew Yang also echoed similar sentiments, calling to resolve the ambiguity and legalize marijuana at the federal level.
&#8220;Marijuana should be legal nationwide,&#8221; Yang said. &#8220;It is already legal in several states, it reflects a safer approach to pain relief than opiates, and our administration of drug laws is deeply uneven and racist.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Marijuana should be legal nationwide. It is already legal in several states, it reflects a safer approach to pain relief than opiates, and our administration of drug laws is deeply uneven and racist. <a href="https://t.co/0Uhl17MW98">https://t.co/0Uhl17MW98</a>
&mdash; Andrew Yang🧢 (@AndrewYang) <a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewYang/status/1196456686875099136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 18, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Yang has previously stated that legalization would not only improve safety and social equity, but would also generate tens of billions of dollars in new revenue based on legal cannabis businesses.

Presidential Candidate Joe Biden Files Paperwork For New Hampshire Primary

2020 Democrats Pounce After Joe Biden Pushes Back On Marijuana Legalization

Marijuana

On Thursday, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang skewered &#8220;the Chinese government&#8221; and the NBA over the controversy regarding a tweet from Daryl Morey, the general manager of the Houston Rockets.
In a statement provided to <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/465263-yang-rips-china-says-nba-should-stand-up-for-free-speech">The Hill</a>, Yang said:
<blockquote>The Chinese government banning NBA games because of a deleted tweet by a franchise employee is ridiculous. The main losers would be the Chinese fans who would find another way to watch the games. The NBA should feel confident in its position and stand up for the free speech rights of its employees.</blockquote>
On October 4, Morey sent out a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/backfire-nba-houston-rockets-cower-to-communist-china-get-blasted-online">tweet</a> that featured a pro-Hong Kong graphic, which read: &#8220;Fight for freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.&#8221;
Morey deleted the tweet, and issued the following <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/backfire-nba-houston-rockets-cower-to-communist-china-get-blasted-online">statement</a>:
<blockquote>I did not intend my tweet to cause any offense to Rockets fans and friends of mine in China. I was merely voicing one thought, based on one interpretation, of one complicated event. I have had a lot of opportunity since that tweet to hear and consider other perspectives. I have always appreciated the significant support our Chinese fans and sponsors have provided and I would hope that those who are upset will know that offending or misunderstanding them was not my intention. My tweets are my own and in no way represent the Rockets or the NBA.</blockquote>
The controversy surrounding Morey’s initial tweet has been monumental — multiple Chinese businesses have severed ties with the Houston Rockets. The team’s merchandise in a Beijing NBA store is allegedly being replaced, reports <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinese-state-broadcaster-drops-two-nba-games-11570522782">The Wall Street Journal</a>. Nike has also begun pulling Rockets merchandise from their Chinese stores, according to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-basketball-nba-nike/houston-rockets-nike-merchandise-disappears-from-china-stores-idUSKBN1WP109">Reuters</a>.
According to <a href="https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2019/10/8/20904450/nba-china-fallout-lakers-vs-nets-broadcast-streaming-tencent">SB Nation</a>: &#8220;Tencent, a streaming service with a billion-dollar deal to bring NBA games to people in China, announced it would ‘suspend all reports/streaming’ of Rockets games.&#8221;
As The Daily Wire’s Amanda Prestigiacomo <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-nba-team-takes-microphone-away-from-cnn-reporter-asking-about-chinese-censorship">reported</a>, on Tuesday, fans at an NBA game in Philadelphia had their &#8220;Free Hong Kong&#8221; signs confiscated, and were later escorted out of the stadium. On Wednesday, &#8220;Free Hong Kong&#8221; and &#8220;Google Uyghurs&#8221; signs were also confiscated at an NBA game in Washington D.C.
Following Morey’s tweet, NBA Chief Communications Officer Mike Bass issued a <a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EGPILDbUwAA_V2Z.jpg">statement</a>, which reads:
<blockquote>We recognize that the views expressed by Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey have deeply offended many of our friends and fans in China, which is regrettable. While Daryl has made it clear that his tweet does not represent the Rockets or the NBA, the values of the league support individuals’ educating themselves and sharing their views on matters important to them. We have great respect for the history and culture of China and hope that sports and the NBA can be used as a unifying force to bridge cultural divides and bring people together.</blockquote>
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver also released a <a href="https://www.nba.com/article/2019/10/08/adam-silver-statement-china-nba">lengthy statement</a> in which he notes the &#8220;diversity&#8221; of &#8220;views, backgrounds, ethnicities, genders, and religions&#8221; featured in the NBA.
<blockquote>It is inevitable that people around the world – including from America and China – will have different viewpoints over different issues. It is not the role of the NBA to adjudicate those differences. However, the NBA will not put itself in a position of regulating what players, employees and team owners say or will not say on these issues. We simply could not operate that way.</blockquote>
The statement concludes by suggesting that basketball should be &#8220;a unifying force&#8221; that fosters a focus on common interests, rather than differences.
State-run CCTV in China were not satisfied with Silver’s statement, releasing their own:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/China?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#China</a> ups the ante on the <a href="https://twitter.com/NBA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NBA</a>. State TV CCTV to halt all broadcasts of games. Condemns Commissioner Adam Silver’s defense of <a href="https://twitter.com/NBA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NBA</a> statements on <a href="https://twitter.com/dmorey?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@dmorey</a> on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HongKongProtest?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#HongKongProtest</a>. CCTV announcement below: <a href="https://t.co/GoeKUktSkA">pic.twitter.com/GoeKUktSkA</a>
— Eunice Yoon (@onlyyoontv) <a href="https://twitter.com/onlyyoontv/status/1181470403731939328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 8, 2019</a></blockquote>
<blockquote>We have noticed that Adam Silver, the commissioner of the NBA, who is participating in an event in Japan, has responded to Houston Rockets general manager Morey’s post of inappropriate Hong Kong-related remarks. We are strongly dissatisfied and we oppose Silver&#8217;s claim to support Morey’s right of free expression. We believe that any speech that challenges national sovereignty and social stability is not within the scope of freedom of speech.
To this end, CCTV Sports Channel of the Central Radio and Television Administration has decided to immediately suspend the current broadcast arrangements of the NBA pre-season (China Games) and immediately investigate all cooperation and exchanges involving the NBA.</blockquote>
During a press conference in Tokyo on Thursday, Christina Macfarlane of CNN <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/houston-rockets-shut-down-reporter-asking-players-about-nba-china-n1064761">attempted to ask</a> two Houston Rockets players if they &#8220;feel differently&#8221; about engaging in political speech in light if the NBA/China firestorm.
&#8220;The NBA has always been a league that prides itself on its players and its coaches being able to speak out openly about political and societal affairs. I just wonder after the events of this week and the fallout we&#8217;ve seen, whether you both feel differently about speaking out in that way in the future?&#8221; Macfarlane asked.
After Macfarlane’s question, a female spokesperson said the players were only taking &#8220;basketball questions.&#8221; After some back and forth about the relevance of the question, the mic was taken from Macfarlane.
Macfarlane also asked Rockets coach Mike D&#8217;Antoni if he had &#8220;a message for &#8230; [the] Chinese fans who, rightly or wrongly, may have felt let down by the NBA this week?&#8221;
D&#8217;Antoni replied that &#8220;it’s a tough situation,&#8221; and that &#8220;Adam Silver speaks for the NBA,&#8221; and because D&#8217;Antoni works for the organization, he goes &#8220;with Adam,&#8221; who he says will &#8220;do the right thing.&#8221;
He added: &#8220;You can’t answer questions like that because you’re wrong no matter what &#8230; I coach basketball. I’m not a diplomat.&#8221;
Other politicians besides Yang have entered the fray.
In an October 9 <a href="https://gallagher.house.gov/sites/gallagher.house.gov/files/NBA%20China%20Letter.pdf">letter</a>, a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE), Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), stated in part:
<blockquote>It is outrageous that the Chinese Communist Party is using its economic power to suppress the speech of Americans inside the United States. It is also outrageous that the NBA has caved to Chinese government demands for contrition. We are deeply concerned that individuals associated with the league may now engage in self-censorship that is inconsistent with American and the league’s stated values – and that this incident will only encourage further intimidation of American companies and persons by the Chinese government.</blockquote>
The lawmakers admonished NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to further state that the organization will &#8220;support their right [players, staff, partners, and fans] to express their opinions no matter the economic consequences.&#8221; The letter also makes several suggestions regarding the way the NBA should handle Chinese boycotts and business relations going forward.
This is far from the end of this developing controversy, which has engulfed the NBA, been the focus of intense media coverage, and elicited reactions from Republican and Democratic lawmakers — even including a presidential candidate.

Andrew Yang Skewers China Over ‘Ridiculous’ Reaction To ‘Deleted Tweet’ From NBA General Manager

Censorship

China

Communism

With the Democrats&#8217; impeachment inquiry picking up steam and the White House digging in, people&#8217;s outlook on the 2020 election is beginning to shift — at least it is in the gambling world.
Though he remains the favorite to win, again, oddsmakers show Trump&#8217;s chances slipping with the impeachment effort escalating. On the other side of the aisle, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren is enjoying some significant positive movement, while former Vice President Joe Biden — who&#8217;s quickly becoming the former frontrunner — saw his chances drop sharply, and Sen. Bernie Sanders&#8217; odds plummeted post-heart attack.
According to odds and sports betting line site <a href="https://www.oddsshark.com/other/2020-usa-presidential-odds-futures">OddsShark</a> as of Tuesday, Trump’s odds dropped somewhat — from +110 to +125 — since the Democrats first announced their impeachment inquiry on Sept. 25. After falling from +110 to +120 the first week the inquiry was announced, Trump&#8217;s odds remained the same the following week before dropping to +125 this week as the impeachment battle ratcheted up on both sides.
Warren, meanwhile, is gaining momentum, her odds improving from +425 on Sept. 11 to +250 as of Oct. 8.
Biden, who was a little behind Warren on Sept. 11 at +500 is now sitting at +700.
The most dramatic movement was experienced by Sanders, who crashed from +900 on Sept. 11 to +2000 on Oct. 8.
Sanders&#8217; plummet has moved entrepreneur Andrew Yang to third most likely to win among the Democrats at +1500.
OddsShark notes in its summary of the numbers that after &#8220;holding steady at +4000 to win the 2020 election, Hillary Clinton is off the board this week.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.sportsbettingdime.com/politics/us-presidential-election-odds/">Sports Betting Dime</a> (SBD) presents similar numbers. The betting line site gives Trump slightly better odds: +110, which the site notes are &#8220;990 points better than his next closest competitor.&#8221; As of Oct. 10, Warren moved up to +230 from the previous week, similar to OddsShark&#8217;s listing.  Biden is likewise way down at +700, Yang is again in a distant third at +1500, and Sanders&#8217; odds are at a grim +2000. Though OddsShark shows Clinton officially off the board, SBD still gives her +2500 odds.
The shifting outlook on the 2020 election has been significantly impacted by the Democrats&#8217; impeachment campaign. Recent polling shows momentum in favor of impeaching the president. A <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/category/columns/fox-news-poll">Fox News Poll</a> released this week shows a dramatic increase in those saying they believe Trump should be impeached.
&#8220;A new high of 51 percent wants Trump impeached and removed from office, another 4 percent want him impeached but not removed, and 40 percent oppose impeachment altogether,&#8221; <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fox-news-poll-record-support-for-trump-impeachment">Fox News</a> reported Thursday. &#8220;In July, 42 percent favored impeachment and removal, while 5 percent said impeach but don’t remove him, and 45 percent opposed impeachment.&#8221;
The survey found an increase in support for impeachment among all demographics since July: &#8220;up 11 points among Democrats, 5 points among Republicans and 3 among independents. Support also went up among some of Trump’s key constituencies, including white evangelical Christians (+5 points), white men without a college degree (+8), and rural whites (+10).&#8221;
Fox also breaks down the vote according to some key &#8220;swing counties,&#8221; and found that support for impeachment was up 10% from 42 to 52%.
Not all of those calling for his impeachment cite the Ukraine call as the reason: While 85% of Democrats are in favor of impeaching him, only 76% say the Ukraine call is impeachable.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/knowles-an-impeachment-in-search-of-a-crime">KNOWLES: An Impeachment In Search Of A Crime</a>
&nbsp;

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