Illustration by Tim O’Brien.
As I walked along Manhattan’s 11th Avenue one day in late April, the wind seemed as if it were trying to blow the plywood outdoor-dining huts over and rip the spindly trees from the ground. I arrived early to the Gotham West Market food court. My date, Andrew Yang, showed up unfazed by the violent weather, as buoyant as he appears on TV.
A candidate for mayor of New York City, Yang is a businessman and failed nonprofiteer with no experience governing and a hodgepodge of centrist, liberal, banal, and just plain quirky opinions. He has some potentially interesting ideas a public bank, for instance but he also loves solutions involving philanthropy and public-private partnerships. And right now, although Eric Adams, an ex-cop and a more conventional politician, has been pulling ahead recently, Yang is polling well with every demographic, including those identifying as progressive or liberal. With his name recognition, he could easily win a race ma
As Yangâs New York Ties Are Questioned, He Cites Anti-Asian Bias
Mr. Yang, who is seeking to make history as the cityâs first Asian American mayor, says anti-Asian sentiment has crept into the campaign.
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Andrew Yang said that a New York Daily News cartoon played into anti-Asian stereotypes by characterizing him as a tourist.Credit.Andrew Seng for The New York Times
Andrew Yang, a son of Taiwanese immigrants and a leading candidate for mayor of New York City, took on issues of race and identity in extraordinarily personal terms on the campaign trail this week, seeking to reframe some criticisms of his candidacy as questions of his Americanness.
The pattern continued through the weekend and into this week.
“Antisemitism has no place in our country or world. Neither does Islamophobia,” Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts tweeted late Tuesday. “That means standing together and condemning all forms of bigotry and hate.”
The messages all took aim at attacks reported while Israel and Hamas in Gaza fought a conflict in which more than 250 Palestinians and a dozen Israelis were killed. In New York, Los Angeles, and elsewhere, violent attacks on Jews were caught on camera. Meanwhile, mosques in Brooklyn and on Long Island were vandalized.
Halie Soifer, who directs the Jewish Democratic Council of America, said she understood the impetus to condemn all kinds of bigotries, but cautioned that doing so can have the effect of diminishing the threat posed by one type of bigotry such as antisemitism.
Greene compared coronavirus restrictions to the Holocaust during an appearance on a conservative podcast last week
She was immediately blasted by Democrats; Chuck Schumer called her comments sickening and reprehensible
On Tuesday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy condemned Greene for her remarks Marjorie is wrong, and her intentional decision to compare the horrors of the Holocaust with wearing masks is appalling, he tweeted
Greene defended her comparison, writing on Twitter Tuesday: I never compared it to the Holocaust, only the discrimination against Jews in early Nazi years
She also hit back sharing a tweet that called McCarthy a feckless c t