2020 Race: Andrew Yang Fundraiser Brings In $1M, Republican Contender Joe Walsh Calls GOP A 'Cult'

Democratic presidential hopeful Andrew Yang, who wants to give all Americans a basic income of $1,000 a month regardless of income, says he raised more than $1 million in campaign contributions during the weekend as five high-profile Democrats declined to attend a planned MSNBC town hall on climate change.

On the Republican side, former Rep. Joe Walsh of Illinois called the Republican party a cult that is bereft of ideas.

During Thursday’s Democratic presidential debate, Yang, a tech entrepreneur, said he would raffle off $1,000 a month to 10 families who register on his campaign website. He calls his $1,000 a month guaranteed income plan a “Freedom Dividend, and says it’s necessary as more and more jobs are lost to technology.

Yang said Sunday his lawyers had vetted the gambit and pronounced it legal. Federal law prohibits offering inducements to people to either cast or withhold a vote but is silent on whether no-strings-attached offers are illegal.

Spokesmen for former Vice President Joe Biden, Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kamala Harris, and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas declined the invitation to the MSNBC forum in Washington and it was unclear whether Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota would participate, the Washington Post reported. That leaves Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., as the only front-running candidate expected to show up to the two-day event cosponsored by Georgetown University's Institute of Politics and Public Service, Our Daily Planet, and New York Magazine.

Warren’s schedule indicates she will be in Iowa, attending an LGBT debate on Thursday, and O’Rourke is concentrating on social justice issues in California.

Those who have confirmed their attendance, include Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Yang and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Hulian Castro. The only Republican on the list is Bill Weld, former governor of Massachusetts.

Activists say the climate issue is getting short-shrift. During last week’s debate, only six of the 85 questions asked were related to the issue.

Warren expanded her anticorruption plan Monday, saying she wants to take power away from the wealthy and well-connected put it back “in the hands of the people.” Her Senate office said she’s planning to reintroduce the Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act, which she describes as the most comprehensive anticorruption effort since Watergate.

New restrictions call for a far-reaching ban on lobbyists engaging in fundraising activities, prohibiting congressmen and top-ranking government officials from serving on for-profit boards, and requiring more disclosures from political intelligence companies.

As for Republican Walsh, he said he’s “given up on the Republican party.”

“The Republican party right now is all about washing their leader’s feet every day,” he said in a clip posted on Twitter, adding it had become a cult.