Democratic Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders exploded during Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Senate confirmation hearing Thursday after the nominee accused him of corruption for accepting donations from the pharmaceutical industry.
“By the way, Bernie, the problem of corruption is not just in the federal agencies, it’s in Congress too. Almost all the members of this panel are accepting, including yourself, are accepting millions of dollars from the pharmaceutical industry,” Kennedy said, an accusation that was greeted with audience applause.
Bernie Sanders EXPLODES on RFK Jr. after Kennedy reveals Sanders has accepted donations from pharma.
“In 2020 you were the single largest accepter of pharmaceutical dollars. $1.5 million,” Kennedy quipped.
“Yeah, out of $200 million,” Sanders replied. @DailyCaller pic.twitter.com/qns5hBd7EL
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“Ohhhhh no, no no no no nooooo,” Sanders defiantly replied.
“I thought that that would come up. Nooo, no no. I ran for President like you. I got millions and millions of contributions. They did not come from the executives. Not one nickel of PAC money from the pharmaceutical industry. They came from workers,” Bernie continued.
Kennedy, attempting to respond, said “In 2020 you were the single largest …” before Sanders interrupted him. (RELATED: RFK Jr. Senate Hearings May Further Erode Trust In The Corporate Media)
“Because I had SMALL CONTRIBUTIONS, FROM WORKERS ALL OVER THIS COUNTRY. NOT A NICKEL FROM CORPORATE PACS,” Sanders shouted.
“Bernie, you were the single largest accepter of pharmaceutical dollars. $1.5 million,” Kennedy responded.
“Yeah, out of $200 million,” Sanders conceded.
Sanders, who had previously been a recipient of generous pharmaceutical donations, pledged not to accept any more donations from a long list of pharmaceutical and healthcare companies in 2019. However, the pledge did not apply to “rank-and-file workers employed by pharmaceutical giants and health insurance companies.”
In 2016, he was Congress’s second-largest recipient of pharmaceutical or health product donations, raking in over $439,000, according to OpenSecrets.
In 2020, after making the pledge, he received nearly triple that at $1.4 million, according to OpenSecrets. All donations under the category pharmaceuticals or health products in that period did come from individual contributions and not from Political Action Committees (PACs), the organization found.
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