Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang appeared on “Fox and Friends” Friday morning to defend his campaign’s key proposal of giving $12,000 to each American adult every year and criticized Democrats for their newfound support for the abolition of the Electoral College.

Yang, former ambassador of global entrepreneurship in the Obama administration and a long-shot candidate for the party’s nomination, was grilled by the show hosts and the audience about his universal basic income program, dubbed “Freedom Dividend,” and his other views.

“You have to look up who are going to be the biggest winners from artificial intelligence and self-driving cars and trucks and new technologies. Amazon, Google, Facebook and Uber. The American people are gonna see very little of the gains in the innovation,” said Yang.

"The American people are gonna see very little of the gains in the innovation."
— Andrew Yang

He added that due to an increasing automation, “most of us” won’t work at Amazon or other companies, leaving the rest of the people at a disadvantage because their source of income will disappear.

DEM 2020 CANDIDATE ANDREW YANG STANDS BY 'FREEDOM DIVIDEND'

Yang points out that his idea isn’t new in American politics as Alaska has had a petroleum dividend for about 40 years and remains to be widely popular among the people.

“Petroleum dividend works put aside the oil money whatever profits come out from the pipeline it goes to the Alaskan people. Everyone in Alaska is getting between $1 and $2,000 a year no questions asked.

“We need to do the same thing with technology and the new innovations in our economy. We can create a lot of the wealth. But the question is right now who is going to see that wealth? It's not going to be most Americans. It's going to be people who happen to be shareholders in these companies,” he added.

“We need to do the same thing with technology and the new innovations in our economy. We can create a lot of the wealth. But the question is right now who is going to see that wealth? It's not going to be most Americans. It's going to be people who happen to be shareholders in these companies.”
— Andrew Yang

Yang was also asked by the audience on issues other than his bold proposal, particularly whether he believes the Electoral College ought to be abolished, a view shared by leading 2020 presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren.

ELIZABETH WARREN SAYS SHE WANTS TO ELIMINATE THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE

“Getting rid of the Electoral College to me, I don't even know why we are talking about it in the sense that it has been part of our laws for decades and it would require a constitutional amendment to change Electoral College,” Yang said in response to a question from the audience.

“Do we really just want candidates just campaigning in major media markets and cities? The constitutional framers were very wise. I will say as a Democrat, it's very, very bad form to look like you’re trying to change the rules when you’ve been losing by the rules that everyone agreed on for decades.”

"I will say as a Democrat, it's very, very bad form to look like you’re trying to change the rules when you’ve been losing by the rules that everyone agreed on for decades.”
— Andrew Yang

He also reiterated during the show that his “Freedom Dividend” proposal isn’t a free lunch given to people while making it harder to become an American success story. Instead, he says, it’s a response to a changing economy that will negatively impact communities across the country.

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“We have to face facts about the fact our economy is evolving in ways that are pushing more and more Americans to the sidelines and telling those Americans pushed to the sidelines like hey, you can be a multimillionaire success story, too, while Amazon is making 30% of the stores in their town closed doesn’t seem to be honest,” he said.