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The New York Times, in a piece published on Monday, asks: Can Andrew Yang make it in New York City politics? The answer is a resounding “no,” if the swift response bubbling up across social media to this Yang quote from the story is any indication:
“ ‘We live in a two-bedroom apartment in Manhattan. And so, like, can you imagine trying to have two kids on virtual school in a two-bedroom apartment, and then trying to do work yourself?’ ”
And with that, one New York Post columnist declared the end of Yang’s latest political aspirations in the City. “I hope everyone enjoyed the Andrew Yang mayoral campaign because it is now over,” Karol Markowicz wrote in a tweet. As reaction mounted, it didn’t take long for Yang to become a top trending topic on Twitter TWTR, -4.93% :
Yang, in the Times story, was addressing why he’s spent so much time away from New York during the pandemic. Clearly, the answer didn’t sit well with readers enduring the same struggles.
“We’ve spent more time upstate than in the city over the last number of months, but I also spent time in Georgia, as you know,” he said. “I spent time in Penn. campaigning for Joe and Kamala.”
Eric Phillips, who once served as spokesman for Mayor Bill de Blasio, suggested Yang, a staunch backer of universal basic income, should have spent more time in the City if mayor was his priority.
“Good for him as a human, but it wouldn’t be how I would use my time if I were running for mayor and the race were in six months,” Phillips explained to the New York Times. “He’s certainly done nothing that I’ve seen that demonstrates a command for city issues or the kind of really difficult decision-making that’s involved in managing 325,000 people and $90 billion. He hasn’t been involved in the civic fabric of the city.”
Yang, however, appears to be banking on his outsider approach.
“If someone’s looking for a candidate who has spent the last couple decades steeped in city government, like, I will likely not be their candidate,” he told the Times from his home 80 miles outside Manhattan. But social media couldn’t seem to get past the whole apartment thing:
