Andrew Yang: Working class sees Dems as 'coastal urban elites' who care about 'policing cultural issues'

Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang offered a warning to his fellow Democrats this week following his underwhelming performance in the 2020 primaries. 

While Joe Biden appeared to be inching his way toward 270 electoral votes -- potentially denying President Trump a second term -- many of the down-ballot Democratic candidates were not nearly as successful. 

Results from Tuesday's election suggested the party likely failed to win control of the Senate and actually lost several House seats while maintaining a majority. 

During a CNN panel discussion Wednesday, Yang shared his own experience on the campaign trail trying to earn the votes of working-class people. 

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"I would say, 'Hey! I'm running for president!' to a truck driver, retail worker, waitress in a diner. And they would say, 'What party?' And I'd say 'Democrat' and they would flinch like I said something really negative or I had just turned another color or something like that," Yang said.

"And there's something deeply wrong when working-class Americans have that response to a major party that theoretically is supposed to be fighting for them," he continued. "So you have to ask yourself, what has the Democratic Party been standing for in their minds? And in their minds, the Democratic Party, unfortunately, has taken on this role of the coastal urban elites who are more concerned about policing various cultural issues than improving their way of life that has been declining for years!"

Yang, a New York businessman who's now a CNN contributor, called it a "fundamental problem for the Democratic Party," insisting the polarization of the country will "get worse" if his party can't solve the issue. 

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"They lost a plant that had 1,500 workers. And so if you're a laid-off worker from that plant and you say 'What is the Democratic Party doing for me,' it's unclear," Yang explained. "We can talk about a unifying message from Joe Biden, he's naturally a unifying figure, but then there's the reality on the ground where their way of life has been disintegrating for years."

He continued, "If we don't that, then we're going to see a continued acceleration towards the institutional mistrust that animated the Trump vote and will continue to do so."