CNN "State Of The Union With Jake Tapper" - Transcript "Interview with Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang"

Interview

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Joining me now to talk about this and much more, entrepreneur and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang.

Mr. Yang, thanks so much for joining me. I appreciate it.

I want to play some of the reactions from your fellow Democratic candidates to your announcement.

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(LAUGHTER)

PETE BUTTIGIEG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's original. I will give you that.

(LAUGHTER)

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I admire and, frankly, take joy in hearing people with innovative ideas and who are questioning status quo and willing to challenge it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: It doesn't seem like your fellow 2020 Democratic candidates are taking your proposal very seriously. What is your response?

ANDREW YANG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Oh, well the Freedom Dividend is catching on like wildfire around the country because Americans realize it is not about the money. I've been personally giving the Freedom Dividend to several American families for months now and when I saw one of the recipient Kyle Christensen in Iowa a few weeks ago he told me he used the money to buy a guitar and he was playing shows locally and he was beaming. He said he was playing shows for the first time in years.

For him it was a guitar. For Jodie Fassi in New Hampshire it was car repairs. For Malorie Shannon in Florida it was going back to school. So Americans are waking up to the fact that we can solve our own problems if we have a dividend that gives us some extra resources to do so.

TAPPER: There has been a lot of debate about the legality of your proposal not the proposal in terms of the larger Freedom Dividend if you become president but what you're doing as an individual candidate.

Larry Noble, the former general counsel of the Federal Election Commission told CNN that what you are proposing would not legal -- it's not legal he says to give those 10 families money from your campaign to use however they want but are you sure that you're on solid legal ground?

YANG: Yes, we have an army of lawyers who have signed off on it. And we're sure that this is perfectly legal. But I do want to reflect for a moment, Jake, on the fact that if I gave a million dollars to media company or consultants or hired like a small army of canvassers no one would blink an eye but if we give the money directly to the American people somehow that's problematic. So, it just speaks to how messed up our system is where giving money directly to Americans actually raises eyebrows.

TAPPER: Let's talk about another issue you talked about along the campaign trail you warned that automation is going to result in catastrophic layoffs in the United States. Some experts say that your fears are overblown, they point to the unemployment rate at a 50-year low, labor productivity increases that have stagnated, not what you would expect to see if robots were indeed taking over. Are you concerned at all that you might be overstating the threat of automation?

YANG: Well, what is indisputable, Jake, is that manufacturing employment went down by 4 million over the last number of years and the vast majority of that was due to robots and automation. It is also indisputable that despite this headline labor rate labor force participation is at a multi-decade low of 63 percent and millions of Americans have stopped participating in the work force which artificially makes that unemployment rate look better -- much better than it actually is in real life.

TAPPER: I want to ask you about something that you tweeted at -- tweeted about at length this weekend. One of the three new cast members for "Saturday Night Live" a guy names Shane Gillis from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. He offered what I think critics would call a half-hearted apology for having used racial slurs in his act specifically against Asian Americans, including specifically against you. And you tweeted yesterday about what it feels like to be called these horrific racial slurs but you also said that you forgive the comedian and you hope others can as well.

As one of the most prominent Asian American political figures did you feel any special responsibility to try to reflect what others in the Asian-American community are feeling or were you just speaking for yourself?

YANG: Well, there have been a number of reactions to my call for forgiving Shane Gillis and I've experienced a lot of anti-Asian racism throughout my upbringing. And it hurts. It is something that is very real. And I do think anti-Asian racial epithets are not taken as seriously as slurs against other groups.

But at the same time, bigger picture, I believe that our country has become excessively punitive and vindictive about remarks that people find offensive or racist and that we need to try and move beyond that if we can, particularly in a case where the person is in this case to me like a comedian whose words should be taken in a slightly different light.

TAPPER: I've heard from Asians Americans, I'm sure you have too, who say that some of your joking references to being Asian American on stage, about how you know math, about how you know a lot of doctors, feed into stereotypes and they resent that as well, while obviously it is not the same level as what that comedian is accused of doing.

What are your feelings on that?

YANG: Well, the Asian American community is very diverse. And certainly I would never claim that my individual experience would speak to the depth and breadth of our community. At the same time, I think Americans are very smart. And that they can actually see right through that kind of myth and if anything by poking fun at it I'm making Americans reflect a little bit more on them.

[09:35:00]

TAPPER: California Governor Gavin Newsom is weighing whether he should sign a bill that would allow college athletes to sign endorsement deals and earn some money off their likenesses. If you are president would you push for a similar bill at national level?

YANG: I 100 percent would. I am so glad that Gavin is leading on this. To me it is immoral that you have institutions that are profiting to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars in some cases and then they are saying these athletes are amateurs and they can't receive a dime. They can't even get money for autographs or appearance fees or their likeness being used on video games. And so we need to own up to the fact that many of these athletes are massive revenue generators for these institutions and start compensating them accordingly. TAPPER: Andrew Yang, we've been trying to get you on the show for a while. It's good to have you here. I hope you'll come back. Thanks so much for joining us.

YANG: Thank you, Jake. I know it has been overdue but I appreciate it.

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