Yang Gets #BoycottMSNBC Trending on Debate Snub: Campaign Update

(Bloomberg) -- Angered by what he said were repeated snubs by MSNBC during Wednesday night’s Democratic debate in Atlanta, 2020 candidate Andrew Yang struck back on Twitter, and soon had the #BoycottMSNBC hashtag trending among his fans.

In a series of posts, the entrepreneur accused the network of repeatedly omitting him from debate graphics, calling him by the wrong name, and giving him less speaking time than was afforded to other, lower-polling Democrats.

“At some point you have to call it,” Yang said.

“Was asked to appear on @msnbc this weekend -- and told them that I’d be happy to after they apologize on-air, discuss and include our campaign consistent with our polling, and allow surrogates from our campaign as they do other candidates’. They think we need them. We don’t,” he tweeted.

Yang is polling at 2.8% nationally in the Democratic primary race, according to a RealClearPolitics summary of recent surveys. That puts him ahead of, among others, Senators Amy Klobuchar and Cory Booker, and billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer. He had about 6 minutes, 48 seconds of speaking time during the more than two-hour debate, the least of the 10 participants.

Iowa’s Vilsack Gives Biden Coveted Endorsement (12:27 p.m.)

Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack and his wife, Christie, endorsed Joe Biden on Saturday, providing key support for the former vice president as he has seen his poll numbers in the first caucus state slip.

Vilsack was agriculture secretary during both terms of the Obama administration. He and his wife joined Biden and his wife, Jill, at a campaign event in Des Moines on Saturday.

Vilsack was one of the most coveted endorsements ahead of the Feb. 3 Iowa caucuses. Over the past few months, the Vilsacks have hosted and attended events for many of the Democratic presidential candidates, including one for Biden at their home in July.

“I think he’s got the right message and I think he is the right antidote to President Trump,” Tom Vilsack said in an interview. Most Americans, he added, “would prefer to have a president taking care of things, and our lives improving on a daily basis, allowing us to do what we want to do, which is to take care of our families and get the kids to school and and have a happy life.”

An Iowa poll released last week by the Des Moines Register and CNN showed Biden tied for third place with Bernie Sanders at 15%. They both trailed Pete Buttigieg with 25% and Elizabeth Warren with 16%. -- By Tyler Pager

COMING UP

Biden will embark on an eight-day, 18 county bus tour of Iowa from Nov. 30 to Dec. 7.

--With assistance from Tyler Pager.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ros Krasny in Washington at rkrasny1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Steve Geimann

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