Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang is calling out MSNBC for giving him less than seven minutes of talking time in Wednesday’s debate ― lower than any other candidate onstage.
The entrepreneur said Saturday he was asked to appear on the network, but refused to do so unless it offers him an on-air apology and covers his campaign in a manner consistent with polling.
“They think we need them,” he said. “We don’t.”
The national polling average shows Yang at 3%, neck and neck with Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and just above New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker. However, both senators had more than 10 minutes of talking time. Even billionaire philanthropist Tom Steyer, who is polling at less than 1%, received a larger share of time than Yang, clocking in at almost 8 1/2 minutes.
The debate was hosted by both MSNBC and The Washington Post in Atlanta.
On Thursday, Yang shared an edited video of his performance with the caption, “#MSNBCFearsYang because we can turn seconds into substance.”
In subsequent tweets on Saturday, the candidate rebuked MSNBC for leaving him out of graphics and erroneously calling him John Yang.
“The whole time we have gotten stronger,” he said. “This is actually bad for MSNBC. It will only get worse after I make the next debates and keep rising in the polls. The people are smarter than MSNBC would like to think.”
Earlier this month, MSNBC issued an apology after leaving Yang out of an Iowa poll graphic.
MSNBC declined to offer a statement, but a network spokesperson pointed out its on-air correction of the recent poll graphic, and noted that a previous third-quarter fundraising graphic that left him out did so because his campaign had not announced its fundraising total in time.
The spokesperson also called attention to MSNBC’s on-air correction and apology for its “John Yang” mistake, which occurred on its program “The Beat.”
This article has been updated with information provided by MSNBC.