Transcript for Trump is 'a symptom and we need to cure the underlying disease': Andrew Yang

Fewer than 5% of Americans donate to political campaigns. You know what you need to donate to political campaigns? Disposable income. I guarantee if we had a freedom dividend of $1,000 a month I would not be the only candidate of color on this stage tonight. That was Andrew yang at the final presidential debate of 2019 making his pitch for universal basic income plan. He's been the surprise break-through candidate of 2020. A dozen mayors and members of congress have dropped out. Yang is still there. Andrew yang joins me live right now. Thank you for joining us, sir. I want to start with your campaign slogan. It is "Not left, not right, but forward." What does that mean? Jon, to me it's clear the reason Donald Trump is our president is that we automated away 4 million manufacturing jobs primarily based in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri and Iowa, the swing states he needed to win. What we did to those jobs we'll do to the retail jobs, the call center jobs and eventually the truck driver jobs. We need a new way forward for all Americans independent of your political affiliation. That's what I mean by not left, not right, forward. These problems are technological and apply to us all. Are you saying the democratic party has tied too far to the left and the Republicans too far to the right? I was an ambassador in the Obama administration. To me Democrats haven't asked themselves the hard question as to how Donald Trump won in 2016. If you look around the country, you see 30% of stores and malls closing. You see high levels of stress, financial insecurity, student loan debt, even suicides and drug overdoses. These are the problems that voters talk to me about when I'm out there every single day. The democratic party is acting like Donald Trump is the cause of our problems. He's a symptom. We need to cure the underlying disease. I want to talk about your freedom dividend, $1,000 a month for everybody over 18. It's for everybody. Everybody who opts in gets the freedom dividend. Why do you provide $1,000 to somebody like Jeff bezos or Donald Trump? Math, they don't need it. This plan is already going to be very expensive. I'm glad you noticed the math. It stands for make America think it's based on the petroleum dividend in effect in Alaska for almost 40 years. Everyone in Alaska gets $2,000 a year no questions asked. That's the richest alaskan and the poorest. This makes it popular. There's no stigma attached to it. There's no you get it, I don't. My way to pay for it is taking a toll from every Amazon sale, every Google search. If we get $1,000 from Jeff bezos, it's immaterial. I want to talk about your health care plan. You just released a new health care plan. I'm a little bit confused about where you stand. I want to play clips from two of your ads where you talk about health care. We need to move towards a medicare for all system where every American has access to quality services. His ideas are a blueprint for a new way forward. A health care system with medicare for all. I looked at your health care plan. I've got it right here. This plan does not call for medicare for all. It doesn't even have a public option. Why the dissident here? We need to move toward universal health care that's high quality and nearly cost free for Americans around the country. Reality is we have millions of Americans who are on private insurance right now. Taking those plans away from them very quickly would be untenable for many Americans. The goal of the government has to be we can demonstrate that we can outcompete private companies. I'm confused. Your plan says medicare for all. Your plan is not medicare for all. It's not even medicare for some. For some there's not even a public option. Our plan is to expand a universal health care. Medicare for all is not the name of a bill. Medicare for all is universal health care for all Americans. Medicare for all is medicare for all, right? I mean -- Our health care plan would be based on medicare and expanding it over time to more and more Americans. You lower the eligibility age and make it widely accessible. I didn't see that in your plan. I want to move forward to the question of your campaign. So you have as we established are the surprise break-out candidate. You're on the debate stage, just one of seven. Nobody expected you to still be here. You never really broken 5% in polls. What do you have to do to actually break through to the next level? Jon, I love being described as a surprise break-through. That seems very positive. You and I know there hasn't been a poll in the early states in over a month. I can't wait for new polls to come out that show how much we're growing. How much the energy and enthusiasm and the crowds are getting bigger every time I have go to any of the early states. I'm on my way to New Hampshire to celebrate new year's eve. When the polls come out, we'll be at 5% or higher, I think significantly higher. You've had interesting statements on impeachment. You said nobody asks you about it on the trial. You suggested Democrats spent too much time talking about it. You pport the impeachment of Donald Trump, correct? Yes, I do support the impeachment process, but voters don't ask me about impeachment. They ask me about health care and child care and education and climate change. The fact is we need 20 Republican senators to have a change of heart or a change of mind in order for impeachment to be successful. This strikes many Americans like a ball game where you know what the score is going to be. Until that changes we need to be focussed more on creating a positive vision that Americans will get excited about. That's how we win in 2020. What's your advice for Democrats? Should they forgo a trial? If it's a ball game where you know the final score, they could be spending a month or longer on a trial on what you say voters don't care about. Should they just forgo the senate trial? They've impeached him. We've impeached him. You should make it as expedient as possible. I have already said that I think the other candidates in the senate, senator Warren, Sanders, booker and Bennett, should feel free to continue their campaigns during the trial. The fact is we have an election to win and a case to make to the American people. You suggested you would be open to pardoning Donald Trump if you were elected. Is that -- would you? Do you think there should be a pardon issued for Donald Trump by whoever wins -- if a democratic wins in November? My focus is on solving the problems that got Donald Trump elected and moving the country forward. If you look around the world, it's developing countries that have fallen into the pattern that the new president or the new leader prosecuting the former leader. That's not a precedent set in the U.S. And to me that's something I would be interested in maintaining. It's not in the country's interest to look backwards. We need to look forward. You don't want to proceed with prosecuting Donald Trump after he left office? We would have to see what the facts are and what the attorney general advises. My interest is in moving the country forward. Andrew yang, thank you for joining us here on "This week." Merry Christmas and happy new year. Happy holidays, Jon.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.