FOX News Host Sean Hannity Grills 2024 GOP Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy As He Prepares To Battle Trump
Feb. 24 2023, Published 11:01 a.m. ET
FOX News host Sean Hannity confronted 2024 GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy over the differences between himself and former President Donald Trump this week, RadarOnline.com has learned.
In an awkward interview between Hannity and Ramaswamy on Thursday, the 61-year-old Hannity host asked the 37-year-old millionaire biotech entrepreneur to provide specific examples that differentiate Ramaswamy’s 2024 campaign from that of Trump’s.
Vivek Ramaswamy is currently polling in 3rd place in the GOP presidential primary.
But like other GOP candidates challenging Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination – such as Nikki Haley – Ramaswamy struggled to provide clear policy differences that separate his candidacy from that of the former president’s.
“You’re looking for the Republican nomination,” Hannity said during his show on Thursday. “Probably the leader right now would be Donald Trump if you look at the polls.”
“What are the policy differences you have between yourself and Donald Trump?” he asked.
“First of all, Donald Trump is a friend,” Ramaswamy responded. “I am not running against him. I’m running on a vision for our nation.”
But Ramaswamy hardly finished responding to Hannity’s query before the FOX News host interrupted the newly announced candidate and reminded Ramaswamy he is running against former President Trump for the 2024 GOP nomination.
“Wait, wait. But you’re not running for him. You’re running against him,” Hannity said. “Let’s be honest.”
As Hannity’s studio audience began to laugh at the awkward exchange, Ramaswamy collected his thoughts and attempted to answer the host’s question a second time.
“He was the OG America first. I am talking about taking that to the next level with America First 2.0,” Ramaswamy said. “Let’s get the job done, which means dismantling federal bureaucracy.”
The 37-year-old millionaire biotech entrepreneur-turned-GOP nominee hopeful then proposed a number of policies that are already gaining popularity throughout the Republican Party – including “eight-year sunset clauses for anybody in the federal bureaucracy” and shutting down a number of federal agencies such as the Department of Education.
“So I think it’s about taking it to the next level,” Ramaswamy added.
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Ramaswamy is not the only newly announced 2024 GOP candidate to struggle with defining the clear differences between himself and challenger Trump.
Nikki Haley, who announced her 2024 White House bid last week, also recently struggled to answer the same question when asked about the differences between her campaign and Trump’s during a town hall event outside of Des Moines, Iowa on Monday.
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“President Trump is my friend. I think he was the right president at the right time,” Haley told the Iowa crowd in an apparent attempt to dodge the question or speak poorly of her former boss. “I was proud to serve in his Cabinet.”
“All the media and everybody wants to talk about is the past,” she continued after citing the 25-year age difference between her and Trump as one difference between the pair. “We need to leave the status quo in the past and we've got work to do.”
