Bernie Sanders says he won’t release more medical records. This is not a good look, for a few reasons. Firstly, the dude’s 78 years old, and secondly, he just had a heart attack. It’s not out of line to want to make sure he’s healthy enough for a presidency.
The presidency is a brutal job that takes a clear physical toll on people. We need to know a president can stand up to that.
There’s an argument to be made for privacy, and sure, presidents didn’t used to release all their medical records. I think Bernie and his surrogates have made arguments on those baseis in the past. But the standard now is for presidents to release their medical records. We expect to know our president is physically and mentally healthy.
Trump didn’t release his medical records, and we’ve spent the last three years mad about that. Trump is obviously physically and mentally unhealthy, and he’s obviously hiding it. Bernie not releasing his records just normalizes Trump’s secrecy, and I’m not here for that.
Finally, not releasing your medical records, especially since Bernie Sanders did just have a fairly serious health incident, just makes me think he’s hiding something. And I am goddamn tired of the people in charge hiding shit that might be important for us to know.
Image credit: U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders speaking with attendees at the 2019 California Democratic Party State Convention at the George R. Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, California, by Gage Skidmore. (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Notes & Thoughts 