Bernie Sanders Praises Trump on Covid Vaccine, Pushes RFK Jr. to do the Same: Did it ‘Save Millions of Lives?’
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. battled during a bombastic hearing on Kennedy’s recent moves to reclassify several vaccines and to fire the head of the CDC, who the Senate recently confirmed.
Sanders asked Kennedy, “President Trump, who I don’t usually agree with, called Covid vaccines, quote, ‘one of the greatest miracles in the history of modern day medicine that saved tens of millions of lives worldwide.’ The scientific community agrees with Trump. A Lancet study found that it prevented almost 20 million deaths during their first year of use. Secretary Kennedy, are President Trump and the medical community right, or do you still believe that the Covid vaccine was, quote, ‘the deadliest vaccine ever made?’”
Kennedy hit back, “No, first of all, I didn’t say that. I said that in terms of VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) reports a while ago. I said today, I think that President Trump should get the Nobel Prize.”
Sanders hit back, “So who’s right? Is Trump and the medical community right? Or are you right?”
Kennedy replied, “President Trump did an extraordinary piece of leadership.”
“Is he right or wrong? Did Covid [vaccines] save millions of lives?” Sanders pressed again.
“As I said, he got Americans back to work. At that time, that particular vaccine was perfectly matched to the virus that was circulating then, and I have no idea how many lives it saved, but it saved quite a few,” Kennedy conceded.
Sanders continued, “You know what I find a little bit weird in this discussion—I’m hearing it over and over again this morning, Mr. Chairman—is we’ve got the entire medical community on one side. You’ve got AMA representing hundreds of thousands of doctors, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Public Health Association. And all of these organizations are telling us that Covid vaccines and vaccines in general are safe and effective. You are casting doubt on that. Who are your scientific [advisors]? Who are the organizations that are agreeing with you in casting aspersions on vaccines?”
Kennedy replied, “The primary advisors are Marty Makary, Jay Bhattacharya, Dr. Oz, Vinay Prasad.
“So you’ve got a few doctors who agree with you,” Sanders replied as Kennedy hit back, “I’m giving you the names. Not a few. What you’re talking about is there’s a big difference, Senator, between established science and the scientific establishment, which has been co-opted by the pharmaceutical.”
Sanders, “You’re telling me—you’re telling the American people that the American Medical Association representing hundreds of thousands of people have been co-opted and that they should not trust their doctors, the American Academy of Pediatrics? And by the way, just for the record, every single Republican—I don’t mean to be political here, Mr. Chairman—has received PAC money from the pharmaceutical industry. Are they all corrupt as well?”
Kennedy tried to jump in, “The American Heart Association has been co-opted by the—”
Sanders continued over him, “Everybody but you? You know what, when you ran for president—you know we have a corrupt campaign finance system, maybe you will agree with me on that, okay—you were running for president. Got a billion and… behind it, you received three hundred thousand dollars from people, not from the industry, people in it, as I did, from individuals. You [are] corrupt? President Trump got three million dollars. Every Republican got corporate PAC money from the pharmaceutical industry. Democrats as well. Everybody is corrupt but you? Is that what we’re looking at? I don’t think so. And I think the issue now—”
Kennedy replied, “I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”
“Well, I think you do know what I’m talking about,” Sanders shot back.
Watch the full clip above via CNN.
