MSNBC host Medhi Hasan was surprised by a question by “Morning Joe” contributor Mike Barnicle during Thursday’s broadcast of the show.
The day before, Hasan had sharply criticized GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. During a Wednesday evening interview, Hasan questioned Ramaswamy’s integrity while discussing his tax returns and the Jan. 6 protest and breach of the Capitol in Washington, D.C.
According to the Daily Caller, Barnicle was impressed with how Hasan handled the interview and asked him to share in Thursday’s broadcast of the “Morning Joe” program to “congratulate him.”
During the interview, Barnicle smirked: “So Medhi, as you sat there live interviewing [Ramaswamy] … a horribly annoying person … did it occur to you during the course of the live interview … that maybe you were wasting five, ten, fifteen minutes of your life that you’ll never get back interviewing this person?”
Co-host Mika Brzezinski sounded off with the same sentiment: “Geez … okay.”
Hasan appeared to stifle a laugh to project journalistic integrity but then listed a few groups of people he would never allow on his show.
“It’s a great question, but I actually have a hygiene test on my show where I don’t allow election deniers, climate deniers, anti-vaxxers on,” said Hasan.
Agreeing with Barnicle, the MSNBC host added that interviewing the people noted above — people who disagree with his ideology, “can be a waste of time.”
During the Thursday interview, Hasan explained why he agreed to interview Ramaswamy. After noting he was a “serious contender” in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, Hasan claimed Ramaswamy has “been getting away with saying so much nonsense.”
Hasan also accused Ramaswamy of denying reportedly recorded statements in a “very Trumpian fashion.”
Scrutinizing a $15,000 scholarship Ramaswamy received to attend law school, Hasan said: “He relies on people not holding him to account … no matter how annoying it may be to do it, you have to hold them to account.”
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During Wednesday’s interview, Ramaswamy asserted he earned the scholarship and has made available 20 years of tax records for public review — “something,” Ramaswamy claimed, “no presidential candidate has ever done.”
Hasan’s and Barnicle’s contempt for Ramaswamy was also shared by co-host Willie Geist, who called Ramaswamy a “cynical actor” who was too closely aligned with former President Donald Trump.
Multiple polls show Ramaswamy in third position in the GOP race, slowly gaining ground against second-place holder Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
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