CNN’s Acosta Calls Out Andrew Yang’s Forward Party as “Fill-in-the-Blank Party” – Opinion

On Sunday, former presidential candidate Andrew Yang appeared on CNN to discuss his tweets criticizing the FBI’s raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate and to discuss his new Forward Party. In the ten-minute plus interview, Yang struggled to have clear answers to many of Jim Acosta’s tricky questions. When pressed on the Mar-a-Lago search, Yang was asked if he thought it was “okay” for Trump to have “top secret documents” and answered. “no”. “no”.

Acosta points out that the “moderate, common-sense majority” as Yang describes the Forward Party, is also the title of Yang’s new book. Acosta asked,

“But are you just promoting yourself, I guess is what I’m asking, are you just out there promoting yourself with this?”

Yang laughed at the question, saying that starting a national party to sell books is silly. Acosta then plays a video of Democratic Strategist James Carville who calls the Forward Party “a really stupid idea.” The abrasive interview continued with Yang struggling to convey the platforms of his new centrist third party. Acosta grilled Yang about the party’s positions on the hot-button issues of gun control and Roe v. Wade. Yang responds,

“The Forward Party has a not left or right but forward stance on even the most divisive and contentious issues,”

Acosta fires back,

“Well, what does that mean? Don’t you have to take a position on something?”

Yang repeats his ideas about the “common sense consensus majority” and the two-party system. Acosta concludes that the party doesn’t have any policy saying,

“It doesn’t sound like you are taking any hard positions. It sounds like you’re sort of a fill-in-the-blank party. You know, if somebody wants a party with no clear policy positions, you’re it.”

Yang continues,

“We’re for the common sense consensus on guns, abortion, climate change but we’re not getting a common sense consensus result on any of those issues.”

Acosta rebuttals,

“What are those positions? Those are just sort of fuzzy… but those are fuzzy… nebulous… it sounds like something you came up with in a focus group.”

Truth be told, Yang’s Forward Party is light on the platform issues that we are accustomed to seeing. A portion of his platform has been modified from the presidential campaign. You’ll still see Universal Basic Income, and the VAT tax. As I wrote previously, Yang’s real goal is to reform elections so that ranked-choice voting and open primaries are possible. This was what Yang did while he was visiting Nevada. His supporters put the voting reform on November’s ballot. Democrats, Republicans, as well as the Libertarian Party of the state are being criticized by the party leadership. There have already been lawsuits.

Read more: FreedomFest ’22: Andrew Yang Announces Forward Party and ‘Final 5’ Voting Reforms

About Post Author

Follow Us