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And now, from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN Audio, the Ax Files with your host David Axelrod.

We'd have to say Andrew Yang is something of a phenomenon in this 2020 campaign.

He was a social entrepreneur not widely known two years ago. He improbably leaped into the race and has built a following across the country largely of young people but not exclusive to them, the Yang gang as they call themselves.

And who would have thought that Yang would outlast names like Kamala Harris and others who have run and left the race already as he continues on his views on automation and what we should do in response to the changes in our economy, have made him a unique voice in this race as he demonstrated in this conversation we had earlier today before an audience at the Institute of Politics, the University of Chicago.

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So, welcome. I have to tell you that running down the aisle as you just did doesn't translate as well on podcasts as it does in the room.

But welcome. I have to say two years ago you were a highly regarded but not very well known social entrepreneur and now completely anonymous.

And now you are a candidate for President of the United States. You have your own gang. They're here in force.

And I want to talk about that journey and about where you've come from and where you hope to go. But before I do there's a little bit of breaking news that I want to cover and that is that this morning speaker Pelosi announced that she's going to formally move forward on articles of impeachment that the House will move forward.

What's your reaction to that news? It's not terribly surprising and yet it seems of historic moment.

It is historic and moving forward with impeachment proceedings is the right thing. I do want to say that we should not have any illusions about the most likely outcome unless approximately two dozen Republican senators change their minds when it goes to trial in the Senate.

Right now unfortunately there have been no Republicans that have seemed like they're in fact finding mode there are more in obstructionist and defend the president mode.

To me the biggest drawback of impeachment is that Donald Trump is a creature who thrives on attention and impeachment is attention even if it seems like it's bad for him. He's winning.

We have to take every opportunity to make our case for a more positive vision for the country that Americans can get excited about. That's how we're going to beat him in 2020 and that's how we move the country forward after he's gone.

You said a few weeks ago that you thought that it's possible that impeachment might actually hurt the Democrats is that what you were speaking of what made you what makes you feel that way.

That is exactly what I was talking about because the media oxygen is all flowing through Congress and impeachment right now.

And so if there are people in the field they're going to be asked about impeachment very consistently and that's a missed opportunity to again create a new way forward for the country.

What do you think the impact is of an impeachment that is likely to go forward the result you suggest will happen in the Senate a partisan vote in both bodies and then we move on.

Does that increase cynicism in the country does it increase?

Unfortunately it increases polarization because if impeachment is unsuccessful you can already see Donald Trump growing about it.

You can see him saying totally exonerated it was a witch hunt just like I said all along and the people that support Donald Trump will be like I knew it.

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