Andrew Yang’s Rivals Accuse Him of Cheating … on a Pop Quiz

(Or, an Asian man gets the numbers right and everyone has to say he cheated.)

Did Andrew Yang know all the answers to a New York Times test about the city because he is the Math Guy, or does he know all the answers because he looked them up?

Some of Yang’s rivals, all trailing the front-runner in the polls and running low on time to mount a comeback, are suggesting to Intelligencer that it is the latter after the Times released the transcripts from its editorial-board endorsement interviews. During the newspaper’s “pop quiz” section, Yang — a candidate who has been questioned over his New York ties and his knowledge of the city — got the answers to all three fact-based questions exactly right. He was alone among the eight candidates to do so, though some of his rivals got two right and were close on the third. The suggestions that Yang must have had help come as the candidates prepare to gather for the first debate, to be broadcast this evening on NY1 and WNYC.

The pop-quiz portion consisted of three questions: the median price of a Brooklyn home; the median residential rent in Manhattan; and the percentage of New York City public-school students who are homeless. After the transcripts were released, most of the attention was focused on how three of the candidates — former Citigroup executive Ray McGuire, civil-rights attorney Maya Wiley, and former Obama administration official Shaun Donovan — were off on the first question by nearly $1 million. Yang’s response of $900,000 was spot-on. Several of his rivals were close to the mark, but only Yang gave the correct answer.

Amid all the suggestions, it should be clearly noted that there is no evidence at all Yang cheated. His rivals point only to answers that would also be in keeping with Yang knowing the relevant information and guessing accurately.

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