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Vivek Ramaswamy, the candidate with the least political experience, once attended a town hall where he asked why Americans should vote for the candidate with the least political experience

Aug 30, 2023, 21:51 IST
Business Insider
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy speaks during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on March 03, 2023.Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
  • In 2003, while at Harvard University, Vivek Ramaswamy appeared on an episode of MSNBC's "Hardball."
  • He asked Rev. Al Sharpton why he should vote for him given his lack of formal political experience.
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Recently uncovered footage shows that current GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who has no formal political experience, asked at a town hall why Americans should ever vote for the candidate with the least political experience.

The video from a 2003 episode of MSNBC's "Hardball," resurfaced online at the end of August, a little less than a week after the first GOP presidential debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In the clip, Ramaswamy, who was a college student at Harvard University at the time, asked then-Democratic presidential candidate Rev. Al Sharpton why anyone should vote for the minister given his lack of political experience.

"Of all the Democratic candidates out there," Ramaswamy asked, "why should I vote for the one with the least political experience?"

Sharpton responded with a quip and said that just because someone has held a position in government, it "doesn't mean they have experience to run the United States government."

Twenty years after Ramaswamy appeared on the program, Ramaswamy is now one of the most-discussed candidates on the right, and is squarely sitting in third place in FiveThirtyEight's average of national polls where he's bringing in an average of 9.9% support.

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Despite gaining some traction in recent polls due to his unconventional ideas and verbal spars with the press and fellow Republican presidential candidates, Ramaswamy's political inexperience has begun to emerge as a potential weakness for his campaign.

At the first GOP presidential debate, candidates took turns throughout the night to try and discredit Ramaswamy over his experience.

"We don't need to bring in a rookie, we don't need to bring in people without experience," former Vice President Mike Pence said.

Former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley also singled the 38-year-old candidate out, calling his stated foreign policy ideas dangerous.

"You would make America less safe," she said. "You have no foreign policy experience, and it shows. It shows."

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