First Debate

As of June 28, 2019, Yang had received donations from more than 130,000 individual donors in at least 20 U.S. states, thereby meeting at least one of the requirements to be included in the first and second debates for Democratic presidential primary candidates, as well as the donor requirement for the third and fourth debates. The Democratic National Committee randomly determined that Yang would participate in the second night of the first debate, which took place in Miami on June 27. During the debate, Yang was asked only two questions and allowed to speak for two minutes and 56 seconds, the last time of any candidate. He claimed that his microphone malfunctioned, initially suggesting to the debate moderators that technical difficulties might have occurred. An NBC spokesperson said, "At no point during the debate was any candidate's microphone turned off or muted", but Yang and his supporters have provided video evidence they claim show Yang speaking up but not being heard.