Former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg said Wednesday that Sen. Bernard Sanders should be more transparent about his medical history.
Mr. Sanders defended his reluctance to put out more information on his health after suffering a heart attack in October, saying he has been more than open up his health records and saying if that is not enough than people should spend a day with him on the hustings.
“Follow me around the campaign trail, three, four give cents a day, see how you are doing compared to me,” Mr. Sanders said.
Mr. Buttigieg said he was happy to see Mr. Sanders is still fighting, but said the 78-year-old has not done enough.
“Transparency matters, especially living through the Trump era,” he said. “Now under President Obama the standard was the president would release full medical records, do a physical and release the readout. I think that is the standard we should hold ourselves to.”
Mr. Buttigeig said President Trump has lowered the standard by releasing a letter from his doctor and some of his rivals have done the same.
“I am certainly prepared to get a physical and put out the results,” he said, drawing some awkward laughter from the crowd.
Mr. Buttigieg then pivoted, saying he has a bigger problem with Mr. Sanders’ $50 trillion spending vision and a lack of details on how to pay for half of it.
“The time has come to level with the American people on matters personnel and matters of policy,” Mr. Buttigieg said.
Mr. Sanders pushed back, saying Mr. Buttigieg’s health care vision is nothing more than “maintenance” of the status quo, and that Medicare for All will actually save money.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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