Andrew Yang said he was blacklisted by Kamala Harris’s 2024 campaign after publicly supporting a Democratic primary challenge to Joe Biden, a move he said stemmed from concerns that Biden was an unfit nominee.
The disclosure came during an exchange with Kayleigh McEnany, who referenced Yang’s own account of the episode.
McEnany pointed to Yang’s book and read from an excerpt describing how he was excluded by the campaign.
“Democratic Party, but here’s what happened to you. According to your book, you were blacklisted. Let’s pull up an excerpt. Kamala Harris’s campaign had put me on a list of people not to use or refer to due to the fact that I’d crossed the line in my disrespect of Joe Biden so dumb I was kind of glad to be honest, because I’d if they’d asked me to do something, I would have felt honor bound to comply, but I don’t know how convincing I would have been. Tell me more about this. You’re blacklisted for stating the obvious,” McEnany said.
Yang confirmed the account and explained the circumstances surrounding the decision.
“In 2024 Kayleigh, I supported a guy named Dean Phillips who was running against Joe Biden in the Democratic primary,” Yang said.
He identified Phillips as a member of Congress from Minnesota and said both believed Biden was the wrong choice for Democrats.
“He thought, and I thought correctly, it turns out that Joe Biden was a disastrous choice to be the nominee for the Democratic Party,” Yang said.
Yang said his support for a contested primary and his public commentary placed him at odds with party leadership.
“I said, You guys need to have a primary. And I did news interviews on Fox and other channels to this effect,” he said.
According to Yang, those remarks were not forgotten by party officials aligned with Biden and Harris.
“And the Biden slash Kamala camp did not forget that I was saying these things,” he said.
He said the consequences became clear later in the campaign.
“And so then when it came down to stretch, I was on, hey, let’s not go to Yang or use them in any way,” Yang said, describing what he characterized as an internal directive to avoid him entirely.
WATCH: