Yesterday, old videos from MSNBC's program Hardball resurfaced online that show a babyfaced Vivek Ramaswamy and a young Pete Buttigieg asking questions of Democratic primary candidates in 2003.

The two men, who would each go on to run for President and become politicians, were both Harvard students at the time.

During the program, Ramaswamy asked Reverend Al Sharpton why he deserved the votes of young people given his lack of political experience, while Pete Buttigieg asked Richard Gephardt about his views on youth voters.

Vivek asking a question at the 2004 Hardball College Tour is not helping him beat the Mayor Pete allegations https://t.co/mkWL1fS1Pg pic.twitter.com/SN57ubwWmv

— Jacob Rubashkin (@JacobRubashkin) August 29, 2023

Buttigieg and Ramaswamy notably appear to have been present at different events. Chris Matthews, anchor of Hardball, toured American colleges holding town hall question-and-answer forums with different candidates, stopping at Harvard several times.

As the clip and screenshots of it spread online, some right-leaning posters on X thought the footage called into question whether Ramaswamy was really a Republican because it shows him as a young man talking about voting in a Democratic primary.

Others, however, thought it showed how Ramaswamy and Buttigieg were similar candidates, each of whom focused on combative debate performances and giving nonstop press interviews.

Some even went so far as to speculate that Ramaswamy and Buttigieg were both planted by the "regime," although possibly in a joking manner.

Others thought the coincidence illustrated how power in America tends to be concentrated around institutions like Harvard. Both Ramaswamy and Buttigieg, before getting into politics, attended Harvard and then went into high-paying jobs in industries that have often been criticized for ethical issues (management consulting for Buttigieg, the pharmaceutical industry for Ramaswamy).

Regardless, the coincidence drove home for many the fact that politics is a small world — and that a lot of people in that world have the same vibes as Ramaswamy and Buttigieg.