Fresh from abandoning his dreams of presidential glory, entrepreneur and failed presidential hopeful Andrew Yang has lowered his sights to the corridors of CNN’s newsrooms instead, joining the network as a political commentator.
Yang announced he was ending his long-shot campaign following last week’s New Hampshire primary in which he finished in eighth place. “I am not someone who wants to accept donations and support in a race that we will not win,” he said graciously.
It wasn’t long, however, before Yang had found another route to political stardom: a cushy commentator job with CNN.
I’m excited to join @CNN to help shed light on the election and the candidates’ experiences. Learned a lot these past months and am glad to contribute to the public discussion.
The network confirmed the hire on Wednesday and Yang tweeted that he would soon be on the channel to “shed light on the election and the candidates’ experiences” and to give his thoughts on the upcoming Democratic presidential debate in Nevada.
The businessman, whose signature election proposal was a $1,000 monthly universal basic income for Americans, said he was “glad to contribute to the public discussion.”
Needless to say, Yang’s supporters – or the ‘Yang gang’ as they became known during the campaign – had mixed reactions to the news on Twitter.
Some were delighted to finally have a reason to watch the network and praised Yang for using the media to his own advantage after some of his supporters had accused the major networks of bias against him.
Some begged him to bring an “anti-establishment” and “fair point of view” to the channel. Another praised the decision, saying the “stale” media “needs new voices and perspectives.”
Others, however, were severely disappointed. “We’re counting on you for something much greater than talking head,” one person wrote.
Once again, I hope this is a temporary gig, with a greater announcement coming in the foreseeable future. Otherwise you might be losing a ton of YangGang in its current form.
You have a huge movement behind you. We're counting on you for something much greater than talking head.
One fan warned Yang that becoming a CNN commentator is “one of the slipperiest slopes” and implored him not to forget his values or “let them have you push a biased agenda.”
Joining the media is just a giant middle finger to all of your supporters yang. This aint it man!
Meanwhile, cynics suggested that Yang only ran for president to raise his own profile and might have been planning the CNN switcheroo from the beginning.
So, what I’m hearing is he only ran to get a sweet gig at CNN.
This is kinda disappointing tbh. One can argue you refused to go aggressive in the debates just so you could land opportunities like this. Like you were just running to raise your profile.
