RFK slams Bernie Sanders for taking Big Pharma money: 'This is not making our country healthier'

During his confirmation hearing Thursday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump's nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services, called out independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont for accepting donations from Big Pharma.

Kennedy testified before the Senate Committee on Health, calling out senators on the panel for criticizing him while at the same time taking donations from pharmaceutical companies. Sanders, among them, has spent much of his career advocating to improve the health care industry.

'Almost all the members of this panel, including yourself, are accepting millions of dollars from the pharmaceutical industry and protecting their interests.'

"All the people here who are defending this current system and defending these pharmaceutical industry profits, many of whom are taking huge amounts of money from the pharmaceutical industry, millions of dollars. ... This is not making our country healthier," Kennedy said. "We need to get rid of these conflicts, we need good science, and we need good leadership that's able to stand up to these big industries and not bend over for them."

Although Kennedy and some senators, including Sanders, see eye to eye on some health care reforms, many of them took the opportunity to instead berate the nominee and label him as a dangerous anti-vax activist.

"By the way, Bernie, the problem of corruption is not just at the federal agencies," Kennedy said. "It's in Congress, too. Almost all the members of this panel, including yourself, are accepting millions of dollars from the pharmaceutical industry and protecting their interests."

"In 2020, you were the single largest receiver of pharmaceutical money," Kennedy told Sanders. "$1.5 million!"

"Yeah, out of $200 million," Sanders replied.

During his confirmation hearing the day prior, Kennedy argued that the pushback from Democrats is all because of their fundamental disapproval of Trump and any of his nominees.

"All these Democrats are opposed to me for partisan issues. They used to be my friends," Kennedy said Wednesday. "They agreed with all the issues I've been working on my whole career. Now, they're against me because anything President Trump does has to be discredited, derided, and vilified."

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