In yet another entertaining, if undignified, moment out of Congress, Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT) and Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin (OK) got in a total shouting match of a heated back and forth. The moment came during a hearing on the nomination of Casey Means as U.S. Surgeon General i the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on Wednesday, February 25.
As could be expected, the incident, which was sparked by a discussion over the innumerable problems with the Affordable Care Act, also called “Obamacare”, and what it has wrought, as the costs inflicted by it have spiralled out of control and required ever-larger federal subsidies just to keep something of a lid on.
Mullin, for his part, noted that whoever the administration offers is attacked by Democrats for trying to change the broken Obamacare system, saying, “Everybody we bring up here, you guys chastised for trying to make changes.” Continuing, he added, “God forbid we change and try to fix our broken system,” Mullin continued. “Anyway, I ranted too long.”
That’s when Sen. Sanders chimed in, snapping, “Yes, you did.” Mullin then fired back and berated Bernie for his snide commentary, saying, “I’m sorry. I didn’t ask your opinion on that, and if I cared about your opinion I would ask you.”
Continuing, he snapped that Bernie has been in the Senate longer than he has been alive, and that over all those years, he has become a part of the system, like a crusty barnacle on a ship, and hasn’t done anything of note to fix the many issues about which he professes to care so deeply.
He began, “But I don’t care about your opinion. You’re part of the system. You’re part of the problem. You’ve been sitting here longer than I’ve even been alive.” He continued, “This is your problem. You should have fixed this a long time ago. You’ve been railing on it for so long. What have you been doing?”
That then led to a snapped response from Bernie, who said, “I decided not to run for surgeon general, You’re the nominee I’ve decided.” Mullin, getting in the last word in the feud with Bernie, fired back, “That is definitely something we would never accept.” Watch them spar here:
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Commenting on the exchange on X, Andrew Kolvet, TPUSA personality and Executive Director of the Charlie Kirk Show, said, “Senator Mullins FIRED BACK after Bernie Sanders took a cheap shot, and it did NOT end well for the octogenarian socialist”. A commenter on his post noted, “Bernie Sanders is part of the problem. Anyone who had been in those seats for 15+ years is a problem.”
Another commenter noted, “bernie has never had a private sector job. He has lived off of the tax payer his entire career. Also, he used to rail against ‘millionaires and billionaires’, but since becoming a millionaire, he only rails against ‘billionaires’.” Still another noted, “Love this. Bernie is a perfect example of the mediocre rising to prominence through the use of Marxist tropes and identity politics. About time someone told him off. Thank you , @SenMullin”.
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video