Democratic Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders lost his temper during Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Senate confirmation hearing Thursday. The heated moment came after Kennedy accused him of corruption for taking money from the pharmaceutical industry.
“By the way, Bernie, the problem of corruption is not just in the federal agencies, it’s in Congress too,” Kennedy said. “Almost all the members of this panel, including yourself, are accepting millions of dollars from the pharmaceutical industry.” The audience applauded.
Sanders immediately pushed back. “Ohhhhh no, no no no no nooooo,” he shot back defiantly.
“I thought that that would come up. Nooo, no no,” Sanders continued. “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.”
Kennedy tried to respond. “In 2020 you were the single largest …” But Sanders cut him off.
“Because I had SMALL CONTRIBUTIONS, FROM WORKERS ALL OVER THIS COUNTRY. NOT A NICKEL FROM CORPORATE PACS,” Sanders shouted.
Kennedy didn’t back down. “Bernie, you were the single largest accepter of pharmaceutical dollars. $1.5 million.”
“Yeah, out of $200 million,” Sanders admitted.
Sanders had previously received large pharmaceutical donations. But in 2019, he vowed to stop accepting money from pharmaceutical and healthcare companies. The pledge, however, didn’t apply to regular employees working for those companies.
Back in 2016, he was the second-biggest recipient of pharmaceutical and health product donations in Congress. He brought in more than $439,000 that year.
By 2020, after making his pledge, the number skyrocketed. He received nearly $1.4 million, according to OpenSecrets. The donations came from individuals, not PACs, the organization found.