Bernie Sanders asked RFK Jr. if all the Senators Grilling Him Were Corrupt—And the Answer is…

Last week, we saw Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. step into the lion’s den of the Senate Finance Committee. Under pressure from both Republican and Democratic senators, Kennedy questioned the reliability of vaccine data, defended his leadership overhaul of the CDC, and reaffirmed the bold vision behind his MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) report.

Kennedy did not flinch. He accused Sen. Maggie Hassan of “making things up to scare people, and it’s a lie” when confronted about vaccine availability policy.

He blasted the CDC's performance during the COVID-19 pandemic as a series of costly, unscientific mandates that "destroyed small businesses, violated civil liberties, closed our schools and caused generational damage." Masking infants and spiraling economic inequality were, he argued, hallmarks of the agency’s failure.

Kennedy didn’t just challenge practices—he challenged motives. When Sen. Ron Wyden pressed on the American Academy of Pediatrics’ criticism of Kennedy’s vaccine policy changes, the Secretary pushed back: “Their biggest contributors are the four largest vaccine makers… I don’t think I would put a big stake in what they say that benefits pharmaceutical interests.”

At the hearing, Kennedy also emphasized non-vaccine treatments for COVID like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, pointing to their continued potential in combating the disease.

And then, Sen. Bernie Sanders (Democratic Socialist—VT) pointed out that:

“every Republican got corporate PAC money from the pharmaceutical industry, Democrats as well. Everybody is corrupt but you. Is that what we're looking at? I don't think so."

Oh, Bernie. Tisk, tisk, tisk.

I beg to differ.

Being an inquisitive sort, I went looking to see just how much Big Pharma money had been poured onto the Finance Committee, and who were the biggest recipients. Receiving donations isn’t evidence of corruption in and of itself…but we all know how the world works, don’t we? There’s no quid without at least a little bit of pro quo inside the Beltway (or anywhere else, for that matter).

Most of what I found comes from OpenSecrets, starting from this link. If you don’t believe me, that’s fine—feel free to wreck your Sunday afternoon and evening digging all this out!

Overall, in the 2023-2024 cycle: 

Across the Senate, Democrats received $3.80 million from pharmaceutical and health-product sources (PACs and individuals), compared to $2.70 million for Republicans, with a small portion to Independents. In the House, Democrats also led, garnering $11.04 million vs. Republicans’ $9.82 million. In total, the pharmaceutical/health products industry contributed $26.4 million to Democrats and $16.1 million to Republicans in 2023–2024.

For the 2023-2024 cycle, these Democratic Senators rank among the top recipients:

• Bob Casey (D-PA): $624,574
• Jon Tester (D-MT): $576,423
• Sherrod Brown (D-OH): $478,109
• Jacky Rosen (D-NV): $341,471
• Tammy Baldwin (D-WI): $258,558

Looking at the long-term landscape (from 1900-2024), certain prominent Democrats have received notably large sums:

• Joe Biden (D): $9.09 million
• Kamala Harris (D): $9.14 million
• Bob Casey (D-PA): $2.16 million
• Bernie Sanders (DS-VT): $1.95 million 
• Sherrod Brown (D-OH): $1.62 million
• Raphael Warnock (D-GA): $1.77 million

And lest you Republicans feel smug, Mitt Romney (RINO-UT) is right up there with $3.39 million, and he’s far from alone on that list.

An earlier analysis (2003–2009) found that Democrats on the Finance Committee who sided with Big Pharma (Baucus, Menéndez, Carper) received 4.2 times more in pharmaceutical contributions (~$198K) than those who opposed (averaging ~$47K).

So, who’s on the Senate Finance Committee right now?

• Chair: Mike Crapo (R–ID)
• Ranking Member: Ron Wyden (D–OR)

Republican Majority Members

• Chuck Grassley (R–IA)
• John Cornyn (R–TX)
• John Thune (R–SD)
• Tim Scott (R–SC)
• Bill Cassidy (R–LA)
• James Lankford (R–OK)
• Steve Daines (R–MT)
• Todd Young (R–IN)
• John Barrasso (R–WY)
• Ron Johnson (R–WI)
• Thom Tillis (R–NC)
• Marsha Blackburn (R–TN)
• Roger Marshall (R–KS)

Democratic Minority Members

• Ron Wyden (D–OR) (Ranking)
• Maria Cantwell (D–WA)
• Michael Bennet (D–CO)
• Mark Warner (D–VA)
• Sheldon Whitehouse (D–RI)
• Maggie Hassan (D–NH)
• Catherine Cortez Masto (D–NV)
• Elizabeth Warren (D–MA)
• Bernie Sanders (I–VT) (Caucuses with Democrats)
• Tina Smith (D–MN)
• Ben Ray Luján (D–NM)
• Raphael Warnock (D–GA)
• Peter Welch (D–VT)

Here’s the most up-to-date snapshot of pharmaceuticals/health-products contributions to current members of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee (119th Congress, 2025–2026), focusing on both recent cycle data (2023–2024) and long-term totals (1990–2024). Data is drawn primarily from OpenSecrets:

To summarize:

Here’s the chart comparing Pharma/health product donations to Finance Committee members:

• Blue bars = 2023–24 cycle totals
• Orange bars = Lifetime totals (1990–2024)

It makes clear that Democrats (including Sanders) have drawn far more industry money than Republicans, both this cycle and over the long haul.

Here’s the full committee stacked horizontal bar chart, with the top 5 recipients in this cycle—all Dems—added in:

• Colored bars (blue = Democrats/Independents, red = Republicans) = Lifetime totals (1990–2024)
• Black overlay bars = 2023–24 cycle contributions

This lets you see not only who’s taken the most over time, but also who’s currently drawing the biggest Pharma checks.

So, Bernie; you tell me—are they all corrupt? Are some just a little bit corrupt, but others thoroughly, stinkingly corrupt? If the corruption is related to the amount of donations, then aren't the Dems more corrupt, as a group, that the Republicans? And why should we bother listening to a self-described Democratic Socialist who’s a millionaire who owns three houses?

What’s a good Democratic Socialist like you doing all the way up near the top of that chart, anyway?

And all of you who’ve been attacking RFK Jr. these last few weeks? We know about those (allegedly) leaked minutes from the BIO Vaccine Policy Steering Committee meeting held on April 3, 2025, and how they (allegedly) decided to use $2 million of their $4 million slush fund to pay for The Plot to Get RFK. The Brownstone Institute called it “not just as a domestic political act, but as a nodal maneuver in a transnational agenda to control the terms of health, science, and consent.”

And just who is BIO? Per Brownstone: “the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO)…membership includes Pfizer, Merck, Novavax, Vaxcyte, and hundreds of biotech firms that profit from regulatory insulation.”

That explains a lot, doesn’t it?

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