At the fifth Democratic debate Nov. 20, the ten candidates discussed issues including foreign policy, immigration, economic inequality, and of course President Trump.
A CNN analysis of each candidate’s speaking time from the debate showed Senator Elizabeth Warren speaking the most, while businessman Andrew Yang spoke the least.
Yang, along with Tom Steyer, is one of the only candidates that does not have previous experience in politics.
Wednesday night, Yang spoke for just under 7 minutes, while candidates like Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg and Warren spoke for around 12 to 13 minutes.
Junior Liam Smith of Takoma Park is a supporter of Yang and doesn’t think that his lack of experience is a problem.
“He gets the least amount of time because the DNC doesn’t want him to win,” he said.
Senior Harry Huntley of Baltimore is neutral towards Yang and thinks that the candidates like Warren get more speaking time because polls show her having a better chance of winning the nomination.
“I think if you look at Warren’s base of support, it comes disproportionately from more upper class, college educated Democrats which presumably includes all the moderators and people who wrote the questions,” he said. “So it’s likely those people had some subconscious bias.”
In his closing statement for the debate, Yang called President Trump “a symptom, and we need to cure the disease.” He also reached out to parent voters.
“Our kids are not alright,” he said. “They’re not alright because we’re leaving them a future that is far darker than the lives we have led.”
Since the debate, there has been an outpouring of support for Yang as he called out MSNBC for not covering his campaign as much as other candidates.
He tweeted on Saturday: “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.”
Featured Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Collision Conf Flickr.
Dylan Josephson is a journalism student at the University of Maryland.
