Marianne Williamson and Andrew Yang

Marianne Williamson, a Democratic candidate for President, has said that her mic was muted at times during the Democratic debate on Thursday too. Andrew Yang became a trend on Twitter after he said that his mic was muted during the debate and supporters found a video that might back up his claim. NBC, meanwhile, has said that they didn’t mute any mics during the debate. Now Williamson is corroborating Yang’s statement, saying the same thing happened to her. The debate was hosted by MSNBC, NBC, and Telemundo.

Williamson and Yang were among the candidates who spoke the least during the debates, The Washington Post shared. Williamson only spoke for five minutes and Yang only spoke for three minutes. Eric Swalwell only spoke for 4.3 minutes. Meanwhile, Joe Biden spoke for 13.6 minutes, Kamala Harris spoke for 11.9 minutes, and Bernie Sanders spoke for 11 minutes during the same debate.

View image on Twitter

George@GeorgieTarr

I made a graph. Yang had far more donors than others who had up to 3.5x his speaking minutes #LetYangSpeak

11:30 AM – Jun 28, 2019

Heavy reported extensively on Yang’s mic issue and other times that he’s been left out of MSNBC coverage in a story here. Now Williamson is saying the same thing happened to her.

She said in response to a tweet asking her about the mic issue: “As much fun as I’ve had laughing at all the understandable hilarious tweets about me today, the mic issue is not funny and yes it did happen. I tried a couple of times to jump in and my mic was not on. Particularly wanted in on the subject of race.”

Greg Brian@Gregoriancant

What was up with the rumors of some mics going dead, as in Yang’s? I wonder about the Presidential Debate Commission sometimes in how much they’re making the debates a controlled social experiment. #PresidentialDebates https://twitter.com/marwilliamson/status/1144829360949616640 …

Marianne Williamson✔@marwilliamson

Thanks to @SenGillibrand for being genuinely sisterly, suggesting during the debate last night that I be given the chance to speak.

Marianne Williamson✔@marwilliamson

As much fun as I’ve had laughing at all the understandable hilarious tweets about me today, the mic issue is not funny and yes it did happen. I tried a couple of times to jump in and my mic was not on. Particularly wanted in on the subject of race.

12:55 AM – Jun 29, 2019

NBC News told CNN in a statement: “At no point during the debate was any candidate’s microphone turned off or muted.” They sent the same response to Newsweek.

Yang said that the microphone issue happened a few times during the debate. He told supporters after the debate, in part: “It’s this sort of thing where, it’s not like if you started talking, it takes over… It’s like I was talking, but nothing was happening. And it was like, ‘Oh f—.’ So that happened a bit too.”

Here’s a video of one of the moments when supporters say you can tell that Yang’s mic was turned off:

It appears from the video that either his mic was muted and he was faintly picked up by other mics, or his mic was leveled down. However, NBC has said this did not happen, so it’s unclear what was going on. Kirsten Gillibrand’s mic is clearly much louder than Yang’s when he tries to speak at the same time as her. Many candidates spoke out of turn during the debate and were clearly heard at other times too.

You can also see Joe Biden turning to look at Yang in the video above, indicating that he was talking loud enough for those near him to hear him, but not anyone else.

Yang has said publicly that his mic was turned off during the debate. He talks about it at 4:04 in the video below, when he was speaking to supporters after the debate.

Ray@SaltySunRise

 · Jun 28, 2019

Replying to @m_sami19 and 3 others

Next debate he will definitely go in more detail and persuade more Americans

Corey Davis@CoreyNDavis

Link where Yang says his mic was off so he couldn’t add to the conversation. Like he tried to say “Hey”. But couldn’t. #FuckMSNBChttps://www.pscp.tv/w/1yNGavkAWnrJj 

1:46 AM – Jun 28, 2019

William LeGate @williamlegate

Yang isn’t blaming the possible mic muting on his entire debate performance. After the debate, he tweeted about his reflections and things he could do better.

Andrew Yang✔@AndrewYang

 · Jun 28, 2019

Some reflections from my first debate: First very glad to have the chance to represent on stage! Truly a privilege and thank you for making it happen.

Andrew Yang✔@AndrewYang

Second, I feel bad for those who tuned in to see and support me that I didn’t get more airtime. Will do better (my mic being off unless called on didn’t help) and glad to have another opportunity in July (and afterwards)!

6:23 AM – Jun 28, 2019

Andrew Yang✔@AndrewYang

 · Jun 28, 2019

Replying to @AndrewYang

Second, I feel bad for those who tuned in to see and support me that I didn’t get more airtime. Will do better (my mic being off unless called on didn’t help) and glad to have another opportunity in July (and afterwards)!

Andrew Yang✔@AndrewYang

Third, this format is not a natural one for me at all. Requires very specific behaviors that feel very forced.

6:42 AM – Jun 28, 2019

Andrew Yang✔@AndrewYang

 · Jun 28, 2019

Replying to @AndrewYang

Fourth, I’m glad that the network switches and we get different moderators each time.

Andrew Yang✔@AndrewYang

Overall I’m pumped for what we accomplished and even more pumped to take what I’ve learned and get out there again soon.

6:52 AM – Jun 28, 2019

Yang now has 130,000 donors, which is enough to meet the donor requirement for being in the Democratic debates in September. The other requirement is hitting 2 percent in qualified polls.

Andrew Yang✔@AndrewYang

 · Jun 28, 2019

Heck yeah – we are at 129,943 donors and will clear 130,000 donors later today! Next stop September and October DNC debates! Thank you #YangGang – you all are making history and changing what is possible in our country. We will give a special shoutout to donor #130,000.

Andrew Yang✔@AndrewYang

Donor #130,000 is Joshua Evans from Havertown, Pennsylvania! Thank you Joshua and thank you #YangGang! Onwards to 2020!

10:12 PM – Jun 28, 2019

Yang’s supporters have pointed out times before when he was left off MSNBC graphics. Here’s one video where the monitor quit working right when they started to talk about him.

Scott Santens✔@scottsantens

 · Jun 28, 2019

Replying to @scottsantens

This egregious behavior has even been noted by @FAIRmediawatch where despite polling 8th at the time, an MSNBC graphic earlier this month excluded Andrew Yang in a photo compilation of 20 candidates. #LetYangSpeak #YangGanghttps://twitter.com/FAIRmediawatch/status/1138476327022092288 …

FAIR✔@FAIRmediawatch

Replying to @RealSaavedra @AndrewYang

According to @RealClearNews’ average of polling, @AndrewYang is tied for 8th place in the Democratic race–yet he’s not one of the 20 candidates included in @MSNBC’s candidate graphic. http://bit.ly/2YKNtUA 

Scott Santens✔@scottsantens

Okay, this one is actually really funny. Hat’s off on this one, MSNBC.

“Who else is on that stage with the former Vice President, with Bernie Sanders, you know Andrew Yang… whoops… my screen just went out!”#LetYangSpeak #YangGang #Yang2020

5:52 PM – Jun 28, 2019

Before the debates this week, when MSNBC had a graphic showing the “Showdown in the South” that was coming to Miami, they left both Yang and Williamson off the original graphic, and instead included candidates who weren’t qualified for the debates.

You can see more examples of MSNBC’s previous coverage of Yang in Heavy’s story here. NBC still says that the mics were never muted or turned off. But now Williamson is corroborating Yang’s story. We will update this story if more candidates share the same.

READ NEXT: Yang’s Muted Mic Is Not the First Time His Supporters Were Worried About MSNBC Coverage