MSNBC host Al Sharpton turned the tables on Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy over his lack of “political experience” following their viral exchange from 2003.
Last week, a clip resurfaced of then-Harvard student Ramaswamy pressing then-Democratic candidate Sharpton, who had been running against rivals with years of experience in elected office, why the reverend should earn his vote over someone more seasoned in politics.
On Saturday, Sharpton posed the same question to the GOP outsider, playing the clip of their exchange during a lengthy interview.
“So 20 years later, now my turn to ask you,” Sharpton told Ramaswamy. “Of all the Republican candidates out there, why should someone vote for you, the one with the least political experience?”
Sharpton continued, “And I might add, you’ve never held office. You’ve only voted twice in the last few elections. You don’t even vote regularly. And you support Donald Trump, who never held office until he was president. What, you puttin’ a different standard on me?”
“Listen, at the age of 18, I think you persuaded me on that one, that political experience is not the same as holding office,” Ramaswamy responded.
“Oh, can I put out in right-wing press that Sharpton converted a young — well, I don’t want to take credit,” Sharpton quipped.
DECONSTRUCTING THE FIRESTORM OF VIVEK RAMASWAMY’S ISRAEL COMMENTS
Ramaswamy commended Sharpton for being “the only anti-war candidate” “in either party” who opposed the Iraq War. He then pivoted to his own opposition toward U.S. involvement in Ukraine’s war against Russia, a comparison Sharpton did not accept.
“I would take issue that when I opposed the war in Iraq and going for weapons of mass destruction it wasn’t there. So I ended up being right. You can’t compare that the United States supporting Ukraine defending itself against Russia, so that’s not the same thing,” Sharpton said.
“I think there’s a myth that Ukraine’s actually — I was against the Iraq War then, but I’m consistent now — Ukraine is not some democracy that we’ve now painted it to be,” Ramaswamy responded.
“Ukraine is in a strategic place for the United States… where we have allies of NATO surrounding it,” Sharpton shot back.
“I respectfully disagree,” Ramaswamy chimed in during the clash.
During an October 2003 MSNBC town hall ahead of the 2004 election, a college student who introduced himself to Sharpton as Vivek posed a question on his lack of office-holding, noting that Sharpton’s sit-down with “Hardball” host Chris Matthews had followed two Democratic rivals, then-sitting Sens. John Edwards and John Kerry, the latter who ultimately won the nomination but lost in the general election to President George W. Bush.
“Of all the Democratic candidates out there, why should I vote for the one with the least political experience?” the 18-year-old Ramaswamy asked.
“Well, you shouldn’t, because I have the most political experience,” Sharpton responded, sparking laughs and applause from the audience. “I got involved in the political movement when I was 12 years old, and I’ve been involved in social policy for the last 30 years, so don’t confuse people that have a job with political experience.”
“As we have seen with the present occupant in the White House, George Bush was a governor and clearly has shown he doesn’t have political experience,” Sharpton later joked.
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