Andrew Yang Only Knows Two Jay-Z Songs and Other Revelations From His Awkward Interview With Ziwe
Politics
Though it could have been a lot worse, it was still hard at times to watch former Democratic presidential nominee and current New York City mayoral race hopeful Andrew Yang sit in the hot seat with comedian Ziwe during Sunday’s episode of her titular Showtime variety show. Ziwe’s entire brand relies upon asking interviewees awkward and revealing questions, often in the hopes of seeing them fumble over their words in an attempt not to sound ignorant (and failing). There’s a secondhand embarrassment thrill to watching this strategy unfold—Ziwe asking Alison Roman to name five Asian people, for instance—and Yang’s interview was no different.
From the jump, Yang was prompted to share who his top four favorite billionaires are (“Mike Bloomberg has done a lot for the environment… I feel like Oprah’s a billionaire, and she seems tremendous… Michael Jordan’s a billionaire and he was my childhood idol growing up… and, I was going to say, is The Rock a billionaire now? Is Lebron a billionaire?”), his earnest response a stark contrast from a question that was clearly cynical commentary on the absurdity of billionaires. But Yang’s earnestness occasionally landed smoothly, like when Ziwe mentioned that Martin Luther King Jr III endorsed him and asked “how else are you like Martin Luther King Jr?”
“Well, my goal is to have… Martin Luther King Jr’s vision of a guaranteed income actually become a reality in our lifetimes. I want to be the anti-poverty mayor here in New York City.”
There’s plenty of legitimate controversy over the logistics of Yang’s proposal, but hey, sure, solid answer. On its face, it’s hard to say no to the prospect of the government giving you a check every month just because.
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