Andrew Yang says microphone was ‘not on’ at times during Democratic debate

Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang claimed his microphone was “not on” a few times when he attempted to jump in during Thursday night’s Democratic debate in Miami.

“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,” Yang said while speaking to 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.”

The allegation from the tech entrepreneur comes as an analysis by The Hill shows Yang had the least amount of speaking time of all the 20 candidates who participated in the two nights of debates that took place Wednesday and Thursday.{mosads}

NBC later pushed back on Yang’s claims, telling The Hill “At no point during the debate was any candidate’s microphone turned off or muted.” 

Yang clocked in at just two minutes and 50 seconds of speaking time. Former Vice President Joe Biden, the 2020 front-runner in most polls, spoke for 12 minutes and 53 seconds, while Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) had 11 minutes and 37 seconds of speaking time.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) were the only other candidates to top 10 minutes in speaking time.

Joining Yang at the bottom with the lowest speaking times on day two were author Marianne Williamson and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), respectively clocking in at four minutes, 49 seconds and four minutes, 24 seconds.

Updated 12:25 p.m.