Democratic candidate turned CNN contributor Andrew Yang has thrown his support behind party frontrunner Joe Biden, citing “the math” after the former vice president was projected to win Michigan, but his fans aren’t happy.
“I always said I was going to support the nominee…I hereby am endorsing Joe Biden,” Yang announced on Tuesday night on CNN. “The math says Joe is our prohibitive nominee…I believe he is the right man.”
Yang’s words may have echoed the party line at CNN, the cable news outlet he joined last month as a political commentator, but for many of his supporters – the “Yang Gang” fan club that formed around the outsider candidate while he was running – embracing the centrist Democrat was the last straw.
Omg! @AndrewYang you just endorsed @JoeBiden and I have lost so much respect for you. You claim to want real change, humanity first!!! This looks like you’ve been bought out just like there rest of them.
Andrew Yang is a sellout. Biden will never push UBI. @AndrewYang is not a man of the people. He's a just a silicon valley techbro who had no business taking money from his supporters.
— yellow vest america 🦺 | Obi (@america_vest) March 11, 2020
Others kept their emotions in check, merely pointing out where Yang had contradicted himself – promising only to endorse candidate who backed his signature policy of Universal Basic Income, for example.
"I hereby endorse Joe Biden" says @AndrewYang — "The map says Joe is our prohibitive nominee… I believe he is the right man."
Yang previously: "If anyone wants my endorsement, all you have to do is come out for universal basic income."
Some Yang Gangers stuck with their idol, however, appealing to “logic” and bracing for “SERIOUS hate from the Berners.”
#YangGang, big test for us. We and Yang are about to get some SERIOUS hate from the Berners. Stay #HumanityFirst and use the (correct) logic that this isn’t even anything new—Andrew said a year ago he’d support the Dem nominee and that’s Biden. It’s over and everyone knows it.
The fact is that Yang would have never made this statement if there was a path to the presidency remaining for Sanders. At this point, Andrew Yang has done the MATH, and Joe Biden is the presumptive nominee. https://t.co/xfyn7WjFHm
Thank you @AndrewYang for endorsing @JoeBiden. It is time to unite and bring all of our voices and values to the Biden campaign. This country must move forward and focus on removing the current occupant of the White House and electing @JoeBiden President of the United States.
Biden’s Big Tuesday sweep solidified the lead he’d opened up on Super Tuesday, leaving Sanders considerably in the dust with projected wins not just in Michigan but also Mississippi and Missouri. With Sanders’ chance at the nomination seemingly receding into the distance, one could say Yang was merely being pragmatic by switching his allegiance. However, the ideological gulf between the two candidates – and Yang’s claim of having supported Sanders in 2016 – made that explanation a difficult pill to swallow.
