Tipsheet

Epic: One-On-One Basketball Battle Between Sen. Ted Cruz and Andrew Yang

Alex Nitzberg
Alex Nitzberg  |  September 12, 2019 3:30 PM

The next Democratic presidential primary debate will take place later tonight in Houston but another event will probably happen soon in the city as well: A one-on-one basketball game between Democrat primary candidate Andrew Yang and Texas Senator Ted Cruz (R).

Yang recently did an interview on a basketball court and when he was asked a question about which one of his fellow Democratic candidates he’d “want to challenge…to a game of one-on-one,” Yang answered that he’d like to play the president of the United States. 

Yang said he “would school” Donald Trump in such a game, adding, “Donald Trump, oh my gosh, he’d just be standing there being like ‘awhhh, awhhh’ and I’d be like, score left, score right, score a jump shot. And he’d be li--I don’t know what he would do,” Yang said, suggesting that the president might “gas out at some point. So, it’d be Donald Trump. I like the other candidates a great deal, we all get along quite well and we’re all unified in beating Donald Trump in 2020.” 

Sen. Ted Cruz entered the picture when Fox News Producer Pat Ward suggested a Yang v. Cruz match up.

Sen. Cruz responded by declaring that “You gotta poll at 5% or more to play on my court.”

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Yang shot back with a screenshot of a poll and informed Cruz that he “would be delighted” to defeat the Texas Senator in game of hoops.

When Sen. Cruz suggested a four-on-four matchup with $5,000 stakes for the apolitical charity of the victor’s choosing, Yang countered by suggesting a man versus man matchup instead. And Cruz, in the form of a meme, told him to “just bring it.”

This wouldn’t be the Senator’s first foray into celebrity basketball matches. He played against late night host Jimmy Kimmel last year. 

According to The Dallas Morning News it sounds like the game is will actually happen:

Cruz confirmed Thursday morning that the game is on.

“I think so. Right before I walked in, I accepted,” Cruz told a group of reporters at a breakfast hosted by The Christian Science Monitor.

The Yang campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

As Townhall has previously reported, Yang’s platform includes policy positions like a $12,000 per year universal basic income for every American, voting rights for 16-year-olds and Congressional term limits.

The candidate is supposed to deliver some sort of surprise at tonight’s debate. We’ll see what happens. 

While Yang is almost certainly joking about crowd-surfing at the debate, he did actually do a little crowd-surfing recently: