“Andrew Yang is a leading contender to be mayor of New York City, and as commentators, his opponents and The News editorial board have recently pointed out, he’s recently revealed there are major gaps in his knowledge of New York City politics and policy. Nor has he ever voted in a mayoral election,” Greenman said. “Bill Bramhall’s cartoon is a comment on that, period, end of story. This is not a racial stereotype or racist caricature.”
Greenman said that Bramhall changed his original, online cartoon for the newspaper print edition after “people reacted badly to how Yang’s eyes were drawn.”
“Bill altered the drawing out of sensitivity to those concerns, without changing the concept of the cartoon, which he and we stand by,” he told the newspaper.
Yang hit back on Thursday, telling CNN that “The Daily News characterizing it as simply a political commentary that does not include race just rings false.”
“The cartoon does not work if it’s a person of a different race,” he added. “And I said Times Square is my favorite subway stop because I live blocks away in Hell’s Kitchen and use that stop to get around the city. It goes just about anywhere in the city because there’s so many lines that converge there.”
Born in Schenectady to Taiwanese parents, Yang has lived in New York City for 25 years and his wife, Evelyn, is from Queens.
A former businessman, Yang had been faring well in the mayoral race due to his high level of name recognition following his 2020 Democratic campaign for president, during which he attracted attention for his freedom dividend plan and earned himself a devoted following. But he has been criticized over his lack of government experience.
Asked Thursday how he would argue he knows as much about New York City politics and government as the other candidates, Yang told CNN, “I am a public school parent. I know what families are going through here in the city.”
