no one cared, but then when they found out

he was gonna give out free money,

all of a sudden everyone knew his name.

(crowd laughs) (upbeat music)

So, who is Andrew Yang?

Other than the man debate moderators turn to

when they're sick of being yelled at by Bernie,

it turns out he's got a pretty interesting story.

- [Reporter] His parents immigrated from Taiwan.

His father, a physicist.

His mother has a master's in math and statistics.

Yang grew up in Schenectady, New York.

- [Andrew] I was a very nerdy, Chinese kid.

I played piano, and had braces.

- [Reporter] He studied economics,

and political science at Brown,

and went to law school at Columbia.

- [Reporter] Yang made millions

helping Americans study harder for standardized tests,

as CEO of Manhattan Prep.

He then founded Venture for America,

an organization helping entrepreneurs create jobs

in cities like Baltimore, and Detroit,

and Yang says it helped push him into politics.

- [Reporter] He was named

a Presidential Ambassador of Entrepreneurship

by the Obama administration,

and a champion of change.

- Okay wait, what?

I didn't know that.

Yang was Obama's Ambassador of Entrepreneurship?

I didn't know that.

Why does he never talk about that at the debates?

Yeah, 'cause if you have anything to do with Obama,

you gotta bring that shit up every time you got a chance.

(crowd laughs)

Every other candidate does it.

I was his vice president.

I worked in his cabinet.

If you squint, I kind of look like him.

(crowd laughs)

So Andrew Yang, is a lawyer,

who made millions of dollars as an entrepreneur,

but what got his presidential campaign noticed,

was not how much money he has,

but how much money he was willing to give away.

- [Reporter] He announced in 2017.

That barely moved the needle.

Then he went on "The Joe Rogan Experience"

in February of 2019.

He talked about his universal basic income plan,

which would give every American citizen $1,000 a month,

and suddenly the mentions of him skyrocketed.

- Tonight, free money for every American adult

for every month, no strings attached.

Presidential candidate Andrew Yang's big idea?

Give every American adult $1,000 a month.

- If you've heard anything about me and my campaign,

you've heard something like this,

there's an Asian man running for president,

who wants to give everyone $1,000 a month.

- Under universal basic income, or as Andrew Yang calls it,

the Freedom Dividend.

His proposal is that every single American,

over the age of 18,

would receive a check for $1,000, every month,

no strings attached.

Every American.

Even Bill Gates, yeah. (crowd laughs)

And like, what is Bill Gates gonna do

with a check for $1,000?

Just be like, "Great, I can dip this in water

"and use it as a wet nap.

"Thank you U.S. Government, thank you."

(crowd laughs)

So, that's the policy that made Andrew Yang famous.

And it turns out, there's a lot more where that came from.

- [Reporter] No other Democratic candidate

has more policy stances on their website than Yang.

From core issues like the Freedom Dividend,

to more obscure ones targeting airlines, and robocalling.

Some of his other policy proposals?

Medicare for all, gun safety

and even free marriage counseling for all.

- [Reporter] Yang says that,

he would pardon every prison inmate

convicted of nonviolent marijuana offenses

if he gets elected.

- And Andrew Yang says that if he were elected,

he would promote transparency, by declassifying information

about Air Force Area 51.

- So, if I become privy to information about aliens,

or Area 51 or anything that I am able to share,

I will share it.

- Ah, okay...

(audience laughs)

- That's super exciting.

If Andrew Yang becomes president, he's gonna tell all of us

what's in Area 51?

That is so dope! (crowd cheers)

That is so dope because we get to learn about aliens,

and Rudy Giuliani gets to meet his family.

Wow, everybody wins. (crowd cheers)

So, that's Andrew Yang.

A businessman, turned politician,

who wants to show us the money, and the aliens.

Oh, and there's one other thing you should know about him.

He's probably gonna to spend his $1,000 a month

on the swear jar.

- If Donald Trump's the scissors, I'm the (beep) rock.

There's a lot of bullshit around it too.

I call bullshit!

And I should really (beep) do it.

That's right, I did some (beep) math.

(beep)

Shit. (beep)

Challenge (beep) accepted.

You are getting (beep),

and so because you're getting (beep),

you're just like, "Hey, I don't want to care.",

and I wanna undo that.

I want to (beep) you. (crowd laughs)

And so if you want to help me (beep) you,

then vote me into office.

- What?

I want to (beep) you?

I gotta say, that's a weird presidential pitch,

but it would make a really original R&B song you know.

It's like,

♪ If I had known your bed was a mattress on the ground boy ♪

♪ Ooh I want to (beep) you ♪

(crowd laughs) But yeah it turns out,

Andrew Yang doesn't just have tons of policies,

he has a ton of curse words.

And you know what?

That could actually be the key

to getting him more attention at these debates.

Yeah, think about it.

Trump didn't get on stage

and release a bunch of policy papers.

No, he went up there and he said he had a big penis,

and if Americans voted for him,

the rest of us would have big penis's too,

(crowd laughs)

and Mexico would pay for them.

(crowd laughs)

So Andrew Yang, if you want more media attention,

you gotta take it man.

The next time you get up on that stage,

make your six minutes count.

Just come out on stage and be like,

"Elect me and I'll make it rain every (beep) month.

"Universal Basic Income for all you universal basic bitches.

"This shit's gonna work and you can trust my ass

"'cause I rolled with Barack (beep) Obama."

(crowd cheers) (crowd laughs)

- The 2020 presidential campaign.

Like my afternoon poop, it's not quite here yet,

but I can already feel it.

Out of all the candidates

there's only one I can see myself in.

- I'm Andrew Yang

and I'm running for president as a Democrat in 2020.

- He's a successful business man,

and I don't know if it's the cut of his suits,

or the way he lights up a room,

but there's just something about this guy,

that makes me want to vote for him based on zero research.

Okay, so you're Asian.

You're running for president.

What else is there to know? (crowd laughs)

- My platform.

- Right, I thought your platform was being Asian.

(crowd laughs)

- There are many, many other Americans who care more about

my stance on the issues, than frankly, what my race is.

- Which is?

- Asian.

- Yes, and that's all we need to know here.

Okay, let's wrap this up.

(mellow music)

- You know, I think we should discuss my platform.

- If you want to talk about what you believe, or whatever,

go for it.

I'm gonna edit all this out by the way.

- I believe that every American adult, at the age of 18,

should get $1,000 a month,

free and clear from the government,

to do whatever they want.

- For working hard, right?

- Well, for being a citizen of this great country.

- As his ads show, Yang is all about universal basic income.

The idea that the government

should give everyone a monthly check,

even if they're not working.

You can't just give people free money.

That's the only reason people work.

If I was getting paid without having to work.

(crowd laughs)

- You can't quit your job on $12,000 a year.

It would make it so American's can transition

as technology is eating away many, many jobs.

Artificial intelligence is around the corner.

- Oh my god.

Artificial intelligence, robots,

that's your thing?

- Yes.

- Dude, you are making it so hard to blindly vote

on identity politics right now.

- Projections are that about 44% of American jobs

are subject to automation.

Self driving cars and trucks

are going to displace five million Americans

who drive for a living.

- Shit.

- It's going to displace

hundreds of thousands of book keepers,

lawyers, and on and on.

- [Ronny] According to Yang,

everyone but me should get ready to be replaced.

So if Andrew Yang

is going to stand a chance in this election,

he's gonna have to learn what really excites today's voters.

- If we had a value added tax

at even half the European level, we can--

- You're using all these numbers, and all this nerd shit.

Listen, there's only one thing

that wins election in America.

That's fear, and hate.

- That's two things. (crowd laughs)

- Okay again, with the numbers.

People are jobless, angry,

and ready to blame their problems on other race.

And robots are the one race it's okay to hate.

- Yeah well, robots aren't a race for one.

- Good, deny their humanity.

That's a great first step. (crowd laughs)

Next time you campaign, I want you to go out and say,

"Robots are causing all the robot crime in robot Chicago."

- But there is no robot Chicago.

- It doesn't matter, we're not talking about truth.

We're talking about hate, and fear,

and getting in power,

for Asian people, (crowd laughs)

and getting revenge on every single person,

whoever said we weren't good enough.

- I'm for none of those things.

- Good thing I'm here to help you out.

So, this is an ad we prepared for your campaign.

- Andrew Yang knows America is being invaded,

by robots.

They're sneaking across the border,

taking the jobs we love, (crowd laughs)

and imposing their same-sex robot sharia law.

Andrew Yang will stop the robots from banging your wife,

and becoming your son's new dad.

Yang, 2020.

You will not replace us.

What do you think?

- It's kind of the opposite of where we need to go.

- So you do not approve this message?