Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy captured social media attention when a video clip resurfaced of his younger self sparring with Al Sharpton.

The notable thing about the video is that it was posted by an obscure account on X, formerly known as Twitter, and featured the now 38-year-old billionaire over two decades ago as he questioned Sharpton over his political experience. The now-68-year-old leftist activist was running at the time for the Democratic nomination for president.

Omg. Young Vivek! pic.twitter.com/sKqdz5m1xU

— Libby Emmons (@libbyemmons) August 29, 2023

The town hall featured in the video clip was from the October 27, 2003 edition of MSNBC’s “Hardball” with host Chris Matthews. A few minutes into the clip, a very young Ramaswamy can be seen in the video asking the reverend a question.

“Reverend, Hello. I’m Vivek and I wanna ask you, last week on the show we had Senator Kerry, and this week and the week before, we had Senator Edwards. And my question for you is, of all the Democratic candidates out there, why should I vote for the one with the least political experience?” he asked.

“Well, shouldn’t, because I have the most political experience,” Sharpton clapped back to laughter 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,” he added.

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.