Acosta Roasts Andrew Yang’s ‘Forward Party’ to His Face: ‘If Somebody Wants a Party With No Clear Policy Positions, You’re It’

CNN anchor Jim Acosta grilled Andrew Yang, former Democratic presidential candidate, about the platform of his newly formed political party, the Forward Party.

Last month, in collaboration with the former Republican congressman from Florida David Jolly and former Republican Governor of New Jersey Christine Todd Whitman, Yang announced the formation of the Forward Party in an op-ed published in the Washington Post.

This newly created party describes itself as centrist in nature, merging three political groups together to decrease American polarization. According to the op-ed, this party will reflect the ideology of the moderate, common-sense majority and will serve as an “optimistic and inclusive home for the politically homeless majority.” However, the actual policy and agenda platform of the party remains relatively unclear.

Acosta put Yang and his Forward Party to the test when he joined CNN Newsroom on Sunday.

The anchor noted that the party holds the same name as Yang’s newly published book, questioning whether this was simply an effort to “pump up book sales.”

“I’d have to say this would be a pretty silly way to go about it,” replied Yang, “given the party has tens of thousands of Americans signed up.”

Acosta asked if Yang was just “promoting” himself by launching this party.

Yang rebuked Acosta’s question saying, “as you can easily imagine, there are hundreds of better ways to go about promoting a book than starting a political party to do so.”

“I’m building this party because 62% of Americans want it,” continued Yang “We’re more polarized than ever.”

The CNN anchor then asked if Yang had considered that the launch of this party could “put Donald Trump back in the White House” by detracting votes from either side.

“Is that what you want?” pressured Acosta.

“I’m the co-chair of an anti-extremist party,” argued Yang. “I ran against Trump. I don’t plan on doing anything that’s going to increase Trump’s odds.”

“Why not run as a Democrat again?” Acosta questioned.

Yang failed to address the question posed but did say that “we need a better system” without giving any ideas as to how that could come to fruition.

Acosta asked why Yang refuses the support President Joe Biden’s bipartisan policy victories, saying, “you were just a Democrat ten minutes ago.”

Yang claimed that he supports “attempts to cross the aisle” but doesn’t believe that goes far enough to halt the rise of extremism across the United States.

“Andrew, you’re going to need policy positions at some point,” noted Acosta, pressuring him to give further details about his platform.

“The Forward Party has not a left or right, but forward stance on even the most divisive and contentious issues,” Yang said, once again without giving any specific party position.

“What does that even mean?” replied Acosta.

“You can’t just say this is a hot button issue, so I’m not going to take a position on it,” Acosta said. “You want to run the country, you’re going to have to make some hard decisions, Andrew.”

“It sounds like you’re sort of a fill-in-the-blank party,” Acosta continued. “If somebody wants a party with no clear policy positions, you’re it.”

“We’re for the common sense consensus view on guns, abortion, climate change,” Yang argued, “but we’re not getting a common sense consensus on any of those things, Jim.”

“Sounds like you came up with something in a focus group,” Acosta said, arguing that Yang’s explanation was “fuzzy” at best.

Watch above via CNN