Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang took Democrats and the media to task during Thursday night's presidential debate. The entrepreneur criticized the media for "missing the reason why Donald Trump became our president in the first place" and encouraged Democrats to "stop being obsessed over impeachment."
"It's clear why Americans can't agree on impeachment," Yang began. "We're getting our news from different sources and it's making it hard for us to even agree on basic facts. Congressional approval rating last I checked was something like 17 percent, and Americans don't trust the media networks to tell them the truth. The media networks didn't do us any favors by missing the reason why Donald Trump became our president in the first place. If you turn on cable network news today you would think he's our president because of some combination of Russia, racism, Facebook, Hillary Clinton, and emails all mixed together."
CNN simulcasted the debate, hosted by PBS, so their viewers were likely shocked when Yang said Russia and Racism can't account for the results of the 2016 presidential election, which House Democrats are trying to overturn.
"But Americans around the country know different," Yang explained to his fellow Democrats. "We blasted away four million manufacturing jobs that were primarily based in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Missouri. I just left Iowa. We blasted 40,000 manufacturing jobs there. The more we act like Donald Trump is a cause of all of our problems the more Americans lose trust that we can actually see what's going on in our communities and solve those problems."
Yang then encouraged Democrats to start solving the problems that Trump successfully campaigned on instead of spending all their time obsessing over impeachment.
"What we have to do is stop being obsessed over impeachment," said Yang, "which unfortunately strikes many Americans like a ball game where you know what the score is going to be, and start actually digging in and solving the problems that got Donald Trump elected in the first place. We have to take every opportunity to present a new positive vision for the country, a new way forward, to help beat him in 2020 because make no mistake he will be there at the ballot box for us to defeat."
That was some cold water Yang splashed on the Democratic party. But is it enough to wake Democrats from their fevered delusions of removing Trump from office? Probably not.