Tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang on Wednesday said that if he defeats President Trump next year, he’d commiserate with Russian President Vladimir Putin for ousting Mr. Putin’s favored candidate.

“Well, first I’d say I’m sorry I beat your guy,” Mr. Yang said at the Democratic presidential debate.

Mr. Yang had been asked what he would say to Mr. Putin on his first call with the Russian president, should he defeat Mr. Trump next year.

“And second, I would say the days of meddling in American elections are over and we will take any undermining of our democratic processes as an act of hostility and aggression,” Mr. Yang said.

“The American people [would] back me on this,” he said. “We know that they found an underbelly and they’ve been clawing at it, and it’s made it so that we can’t even trust our own democracy.”

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