Andrew Yang: I did not come away from debate ‘encouraged by our future’

Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang tweeted Friday that this week’s presidential primary debate did not leave him “encouraged by our future.”

“I stood at the center of the political universe last night and did not come away encouraged by our future,” wrote Yang, who appeared on the Democratic debate stage Thursday night. “Will do my best to change that.” 

I stood at the center of the political universe last night and did not come away encouraged by our future. Will do my best to change that.

— Andrew Yang (@AndrewYang) June 28, 2019

The former tech executive previously said that his microphone was “not on” a few times when he attempted to speak during the MSNBC debate in Miami.{mosads}

“There were also a few times, FYI, where I just started talking, being like, ‘Hey, I want to add something there,’ and my mic was not on,” he told supporters after the event. “And it’s this sort of thing where, it’s not like if you started talking, it takes over the [conversation]. It’s like I was talking, but nothing was happening. And it was like, ‘Oh f—.’ So that happened a bit too.”

An analysis from The Hill found that Yang had the least amount of speaking time of all 20 candidates who debated during the two-night event, talking for just two minutes and 50 seconds. 

Yang is among the more than two dozen people vying for the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential nomination.