MSNB "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript: "One-on-one with Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang."
Interview
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MADDOW: I know how to convert dog years to human years, but how do we calculate impeachment time? It has been only 23 days since Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry against President Trump. That is a span in which the news has come down like snow in the blizzards your grandparents still talk about from when your parents were little kids. I mean, as it happened, my guest at the night that the impeachment inquiry was first announced, my guest on September 24th was a first-time guest on this show, a dark horse presidential candidate who`s been -- who had been making a steady showing in the polls, qualifying for all the debates, building up a formidable donor base, putting out plan after plan. That candidate booked here to be on this show the night that Pelosi announced the impeachment of President Trump, that candidate was tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang. Well, Mr. Yang has tripled his fundraising efforts and raised nearly $10 million this past fundraising quarter. He`s the sixth top fundraiser for the quarter for the entire gigantic Democratic field. Back now when the news is still white hot, back now and still in this thing, it`s my pleasure to say, is 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang. Mr. Yang, thank you so much for coming back. It`s really good to have you here.
ANDREW YANG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Oh, thanks for having me back.
MADDOW: Sure, absolutely. The last time we spoke, it was the day that Pelosi announced the impeachment inquiry. And I do feel like these 23 days have been 23 years.
YANG: I`m sure it felt like that for you, Rachel, because you`ve been in the midst of it every single day.
MADDOW: Yes. Does it not feel that way to you?
YANG: It does. I think it does for the country, unfortunately.
MADDOW: Yes. I mean, we`ve learned a lot over the course of these last three and a half weeks. Obviously, we`ve learned a lot more about the president`s behavior toward Ukraine. You`ve said that you believed he should be impeachment for that.
YANG: Yes.
MADDOW: We`ve also seen him make the same ask of China. It appears that he was not joking and it appears that he conveyed that in private to China as well. We also now have seen what happened in Syria. I feel a little bit -- I said in the opening block like the wheels are coming off a little bit. Like things haven`t been good in a long time, but it feels like things are particularly bad right now. What`s your feeling about that?
YANG: You get the same feeling. You feel like the limited guardrails have been in placed seem to be disintegrating before our eyes. We have to get him out of -- out of the Oval Office as quickly as possible.
MADDOW: This news today that he`s going to direct the G-7 conference to his resort in Florida, he floated this a few weeks ago and it was greeted with shock. Members of Congress, in fact, committees in Congress immediately started investigating that as a potential -- at least an intended violation of the emoluments clause. Presidents can`t take money from foreign governments. This will, in effect, be forcing foreign governments to pay him to participate in that event. I don`t know -- I mean, obviously, the Democrats and the House -- and the House in general has to decide whether this should be folded into the impeachment, whether they should be handled differently.
YANG: Yes.
MADDOW: What do you think?
YANG: To me, if you`re going to impeach him, you should definitely be considering different angles of approach and different charges. But that -- what I said at the debate stage, Rachel, is unfortunately the more we focus on Donald Trump, the more he wins. He`s like a creature that needs attention to grow. And so, what we have to do is we have to shift America`s attention to what we`re going to do the day after he`s gone and start solving the problems on the ground. In the debate a couple nights ago, it was in Ohio, we lost Ohio by eight points. And we know Ohio is the ultimate bellwether in our country as to who wins national elections. So, we have to say to ourselves, OK, we have to win Ohio and what does that mean? We have to get into the dirt and solving the problems that got Trump elected.
MADDOW: In terms of what it`s going to be like to take over the country the day after the Trump presidency ends, we do have a big new international crisis on our hands created by President Trump --
YANG: Yes, unfortunately.
MADDOW: Yes. And so, in a Yang administration, if you were -- if you were taking the reins right now in the midst of this conflagration, what would you do to try to salvage what we`ve just been through? I mean, I don`t know how much worse it`s going to be before the next president does take over, but if you were taking over right now, what would you do to try to fix it?
YANG: It`s tough because you can`t undo recent mistakes. What happened was our troops were there and it kept Turkey from taking certain actions. And as soon as those troops were moved, now we`re seeing the result. But you can`t turn back time, and I do believe that our being in Syria indefinitely had to end at some point -- just the way it was done was unduly abrupt, pulled the rug out from under our allies` feet. So, we have to come together with our allies and try and find a multilateral solution that will still work in that region. But there`s no easy answer.
MADDOW: Who would be our allies at this point? I mean --
YANG: Exactly, unfortunately, because historically, the Kurds have been there for us. And now, you can understand why they wouldn`t trust our commitment.
MADDOW: In terms of how we got into this, President Trump made this call immediately after getting off a phone call with President Erdogan. Vice President Pence was in Turkey today and announced he brokered a new deal, right? The Turks wanted the Kurds out of that part of Syria, the president green lit them coming in and invading and making that happen. The deal announced by President Pence tells the Kurds they do need to get out of that area of Syria. The president made remarks today suggesting they should be cleansed from that area, ethnically cleansed out of that part of the country.
YANG: Yes, it`s terrible.
MADDOW: I -- I mean, Turkey is our NATO ally. I don`t -- obviously, neither Russia nor Syria is our ally, nor can the Kurds ever be our ally again. I mean, I -- should the United States essentially extract ourselves from that part of the world entirely, cede Western or cede foreign influence there to Russia?
YANG: You know, we have to look at the options based on the reality on the ground.
MADDOW: Yes.
YANG: And as I said, eventually, we had to leave. And so, if we got pulled out prematurely and abruptly --
MADDOW: Uh-huh.
YANG: -- and the best course forward is to accept the reality on the ground, then unfortunately, I think it`s something we`d have to consider very strongly.
MADDOW: You just walk away and leave it as it is?
YANG: Well, again, you can`t turn back the clock. And so, if you`ve already pulled troops out, and then if you say, hey, if you put troops back in and we can undo -- the damage has been done, that may not be the case.
MADDOW: Would you do the same thing in Afghanistan? Pull troops out and see what happen?
YANG: I certainly wouldn`t pull troops out and see what happens. You know, we have to be judicious and do things in a very deliberate way, have transparency so that our allies see it coming. But we also, I believe, need to live up to the Constitution and end this forever state of war we`ve been in, where in the Constitution, it`s up to Congress to declare war. And we`ve been putting ourselves into foreign theaters for the last 18 years and counting.
MADDOW: Uh-huh.
YANG: And that`s not the will of the American people.
MADDOW: It`s very hard to imagine how the U.S. regains some of our bilateral alliances, let alone our role in the sort of Western liberal order after this presidency. Do you think that those ties are essentially dissolved and you have to sort of take them where they stand post-Trump? Or would you try to reassert, for example, the strength of NATO? Would you try to reassert the bilateral alliances that are really at this point broken because of this president?
YANG: To me, our foreign policy reflects what`s happening at home. What happens at home is that we were disintegrating. Our communities are falling apart. It got so bad that tens of millions of our fellow Americans decided to go for Trump in 2016. And now we have this erratic and unreliable foreign policy that`s making our allies throw their hands up. And so, we have to rebuild here at home and then project a more reliable and sustained foreign policy. But I`m sure that our historic allies abroad are waiting with bated breath for a reasonable partner to get back in the White House and be able to live up to America`s commitments.
MADDOW: Oh, I hope that`s true. On good days, I think that`s true. On bad days, I don`t. I want to talk to you some more about that idea about domestic renewal when we come back. Andrew Yang is our guest. We`ll be right back.
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YANG: We have to let Russia know, look, we get it. We`ve tampered with other elections. You`ve tampered with our elections, and now, it has to stop. And if it does not stop, we`ll take this as an act of hostility against the American people. I believe most Americans would support me on this.
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want to respond to Mr. Yang. I don`t see a moral equivalency between our country and Russia. Vladimir Putin is someone who has shot down planes over Ukraine, who has poisoned his opponents. We have not talked about what we need to do to protect ourselves from Russia invading our election. This wasn`t meddling. That`s what I do when I call my daughter on a Saturday night and ask her what she`s doing. Sorry. This was much more serious than that. This was actually invading our elections.
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MADDOW: We`re back with Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang. I want (ph) to ask you about that interaction, because you said your piece there in terms of Russia and the potential interference in our election in 2020 and pushing back against them. Senator Klobuchar essentially accusing you of making a moral equivalence between us and Russia from when you said we`ve tampered with other elections. How do you respond to what she said there?
YANG: You know, I didn`t respond to her (ph) that night of (ph) because I think most Americans realized I was just making a point that -- that we know America has historically interfered in other countries` elections, at least in our past.
MADDOW: Like what?
YANG: There have been a number of -- I don`t want to go through the --
MADDOW: Do you have like a specific one that`s in mind that`s a -- one that bugs you?
YANG: There are a couple in the -- let`s say in our hemisphere that I think are relatively well-documented historical examples. But I think most Americans realize that we do need to defend our elections against Russian interference, and that has to be the focus and the mission. And that acknowledging that America has done things in the past has nothing to do with that.
MADDOW: Uh-huh. In terms of moving forward in the way the Democrats are running this primary, it does seem a little crazy to me that we are this deep into the year and Iowa is barreling down on us. I just saw the spending figures in Iowa. I think you spent the third most of any candidate in Iowa in this past month. Obviously, you`re making a real play for Iowa. Iowa is really soon and there were 12 candidates on the debate stage this week. It just feels like the process has not done any winnowing down, it hasn`t done much winnowing down in the field. Do you feel like the Democrats have been running this process properly?
YANG: Well, I`ve been on the record saying I think the DNC`s requirements to make the debate have been very open and clear. And to me, they`ve done the best job they could with very objective criteria. And it`s up to the voters to determine who makes the debates. And there are many candidates that are in the race that did not make the debate stage, and I think that`s the way it should be.
MADDOW: In terms of your plan for universal basic income, obviously, other candidates have not been killing you on that.
YANG: I think I got some endorsements on the stage, didn`t I? A number of people said, hey, we should do universal basic income.
MADDOW: Do you feel like if you don`t get the nomination that that is thing you would fight to make part of Democratic Party politics?
YANG: Well --
MADDOW: Try to get it in the platform, try to get the party to work on it?
YANG: A hundred percent. And I said -- said it on the stage. We`re in the midst of the greatest economic transformation in our country`s history. In my mind, it brought us Donald Trump. We blasted away 4 million manufacturing jobs in the swing states, and that is now transpiring in retail, call centers, truck driving. And so, if we don`t get in front of that curve, it`s just going to continue to accelerate to the detriment, the devastation of many American communities.
MADDOW: And how does the universal basic income attack that as a problem?
YANG: So, if let`s say you`re a trucker and you have five years of your job, you got a universal basic income of $1,000 a month, you save at least some of it because President Yang is being very clear saying, look, this job is not forever. And then when you do lose your job, it`s not an existential threat. You have tens of thousands of dollars in additional savings, you have another $1,000 a month coming in. And you go home to a town -- let`s say it`s a town in Missouri with 10,000 adults. There`s another $10 million in discretionary spending in your town, which supercharges not just main street businesses but also nonprofits, various volunteer organizations, so that you have a much more robust network of opportunities to plug into when you go home. In the absence of a universal basic income, Rachel, that trucker is going to go home to very, very little. We saw that happened with the manufacturing workers that brought us Trump. We cannot wait until what happens to several million truckers.
MADDOW: Andrew Yang, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate -- it`s great to have you here, sir.
YANG: Thanks, Rachel. Great to see you.
MADDOW: Thanks a lot. Appreciate it. All right. We`ll be right back. Stay with us.
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