Andrew Yang asked 1st question 32 minutes into debate; later jokes he’ll tell Putin 'Sorry I beat your guy'

ATLANTA - Entrepreneur Andrew Yang, polling at 3 percent, according to a Fox News poll, was asked his first question 32 minutes into the Democratic debate on Wednesday night in Atlanta.   

Though there are two candidates polling below Yang, the poll showed, he was the last to be asked his first question.

One of his breakout debates moments, though not his first time speaking, drew uproarious laughter from the crowd. Yang was asked what he would say in his first call as U.S. president to Russian president Vladimir Putin. 

"Sorry I beat your guy," Yang said. 

“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,” he said. 

During the more than two-hour long debate, Yang addressed domestic terrorism, saying “We have to designate white supremacist terrorism as domestic terrorism so that the Department of Justice can properly measure it.” 

The attorney-turned-businessman also said he wanted to propose a new world data organization, “like a WTO for data.” 

Earlier, in the first question Yang was asked, he used his answer to compliment a fellow candidate standing next to him. 

"I just want to stick up for Tom (Steyer)," Yang said. "We have a broken campaign finance system, but Tom has been spending his own money fighting climate change, and you can't knock somebody for having money and spending it in the right way." 

Steyer, a billionaire, thanked Yang for the compliment. 

Yang responded with "no problem," after which the crowd laughed heartily. 

This story was reported from Los Angeles.