Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy is crediting a political rival for setting in motion President Donald Trump’s newest policy aimed at lowering prescription drug prices: Bernie Sanders.
Kennedy Jr. mentioned the Vermont independent senator by name during a May 12 White House press conference where Trump signed an executive order directing drugmakers to lower the prices of their medicines in alignment with global markets.
“This was the fulcrum of Bernie Sanders’ runs for presidency,” Kennedy said, recalling the 2016 and 2020 campaigns for the White House where Sanders frequently mentioned drug prices. “That he was going to eliminate this discrepancy between Europe and the United States.”
More: Trump signs drug price executive order. What does it say?
Touting what he said is the across-the-aisle appeal of the Trump administration’s efforts, Kennedy added that a couple of his kids are Democrats and “big Bernie Sanders fans” who had “tears in their eyes” when he told them about the Republican president’s new executive order.
“It’s one of these promises that politicians make to their constituents knowing that they’ll never have to do it,” said Kennedy, a former 2024 Democratic-turned-independent presidential candidate who then went on to endorse Trump’s Republican campaign before joining his Cabinet earlier this year.
More: RFK Jr. suspends campaign; endorses former President Trump
Sanders, who failed to win the Democratic nomination in both of his past runs for president, responded to the latest Trump move by chiding the new GOP-led administration for playing politics with an issue it knows “will be thrown out by the courts.”
“If Trump is serious about making real change rather than just issuing a press release,” Sanders added, the president and his Cabinet members would support legislation on the issue.
Other Democrats were also quick to try to set the record straight.
Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, said it was former Democratic President Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act that empowered Medicare to negotiate prices with pharmaceutical companies on a limited number of medications.
The Biden administration also negotiated lower prices on 10 widely prescribed drugs – which will take effect in 2026. In January, Medicare announced another batch of 15 drugs subject to negotiation this year. Those drugs included blockbuster diabetes and weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, a cost-saving move that would take effect in 2027.
Drug prices in the U.S. are still nearly three times higher than 33 comparison countries, according to a 2024 report from the Health and Human Services department. About 67 million Americans are enrolled in Medicare.
During the May 12 press conference at the White House, Kennedy thanked Trump for standing “up to the oligarchs” on an issue long championed by Democratic presidential candidates, including himself and Sanders.
Drug pricing discrepancies has long been a topic of concern to Sanders, who during a hearing in January of 2024 grilled the CEOs of Merck, Johnson & Johnson and Bristol Myers Squibb while complaining: “The United States government does not regulate drug companies. With a few exceptions, the drug companies regulate the United States government.”
Sanders returned to the theme after Kennedy referenced him at the White House, noting that he agreed with Trump that Americans are paying the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: RFK Jr. and Bernie Sanders spar over Trump’s prescription drug policy
