Summary

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accused Bernie Sanders of taking millions from Big Pharma during a heated exchange, but Sanders refuted the claim, stating his donations came from workers, not corporate PACs.

Kennedy repeatedly insisted Sanders was the top recipient of pharmaceutical money in 2020, but financial data shows no corporate PAC contributions to Sanders.

Meanwhile, Kennedy has profited from anti-vaccine activism, earning millions from lawsuits and speaking fees.

The debate ended without Kennedy answering whether he would guarantee health care for all as HHS secretary.

  • 2ugly2live@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    “And 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 and protecting their interests.”

    “Oh, no, no, no, no,” Sanders said, raising his hand to quiet the applause that erupted from the gallery. “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 the workers.”

    RFK just kept saying it over and over again like Sanders didn’t address it. 1.5 million of the 200 million raised for his presidential campaign came from health care workers. And he still didn’t answer the question, only for Sanders to be told he’s battering the witness.

    Fucking hate this time line.

    • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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      26 minutes ago

      RFK just kept saying it over and over again like Sanders didn’t address it.

      Sanders is used to this sort of treatment. Though not from Republicans.

    • douglasg14b@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      Keep saying it as if it was never addressed because that’s what works.

      If you say something enough times it is reality to the majority of the voter base in the US.

      If you ignore all refutes logic or facts and simply steam ahead with your word being the only right word then that will become reality

      • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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        26 minutes ago

        Yup, plenty of people will say that RFK won the argument, simply because he remained aggressive and seemed to be on the offensive. Lots of people don’t critically listen to the content; They just listen to the tone, and determine the winner based on that.

    • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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      6 hours ago

      Yup. When I make a donation, one of the lines is “Who do you work for?” But just because I donated doesn’t mean my employer or business category were the ones donating.