MSNBC host and Democratic activist Al Sharpton claimed in a recent interview that Donald Trump was desperate to get him on his former reality TV show.
In the interview, which appears in the April issue of Vanity Fair, Sharpton says in 2008 that Trump “called me twice and begged me to do ‘The Apprentice.'”
Sharpton said he turned it down.
“I was not going to give Donald Trump the opportunity to say, ‘I fired Al Sharpton,'” he said. “I am not going to do just anything for attention. I am good at media, but I’m good at media for the causes.”
“The Apprentice” is the hit NBC reality show that Trump hosted for several years up until he decided to run for president in 2015. The show is widely credited with turning him from New York tabloid fixture to national celebrity.
A spokesperson for the Trump campaign did not return a request for comment from the Washington Examiner.
In the Vanity Fair profile, Sharpton also said he is “committed with every molecule of my body to making sure that the right wing doesn’t win in November.”
“Everything that I have lived for in 61 years is at stake,” he said.
