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11 Mar, 2020 02:43

Going native at CNN? Yang kicks off firestorm by endorsing Biden

Going native at CNN? Yang kicks off firestorm by endorsing Biden

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.

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.

Even non-Yang-Gangers were put off by the ex-candidate “going native” so quickly at CNN.

Some Yang Gangers stuck with their idol, however, appealing to “logic” and bracing for “SERIOUS hate from the Berners.”

And the blue-check Biden brigade embraced its newest member. One of us! One of us!

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.

Also on rt.com U-turn: Ex-Democratic candidate Andrew Yang joins CNN as political commentator

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