It’s A ‘Trumpy Lie!’: Sanders, Bloomberg Trade Barbs Over Their Heart Conditions

The feud between Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who is twenty points head of the field of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates going into Saturday’s Nevada caucuses, and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has yet to win a primary contest despite moving swiftly up the ranks these last two weeks, is heating up.

And the pair, both men in the late seventies, are now trading barbs over their respective health conditions, and whether or not either of them is susceptible to an imminent heart attack.

In a shocking statement to CNN made Wednesday morning, Sanders’ national press secretary Briahna Joy Gray, defended Sanders’ decision not to release his medical records — a development the Daily Wire covered Wednesday morning — by suggesting that Bloomberg “has suffered heart attacks in the past,” rendering him unable to make the argument that Sanders is too medically fragile to hold the nation’s highest office, having suffered his own heart attack in December.

John Berman

✔@JohnBerman

JUST NOW: Press Sec for @BernieSanders equates questions on his medical records to "smear" campaign. & claims @MikeBloomberg has "suffered heart attacks."

Bloomberg had an irregular heartbeat & stents. But I've seen no record of attack. Checking now.

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6:53 PM - Feb 19, 2020

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Michael Bloomberg’s campaign quickly fired back, calling the claim a “Trumpy lie” from the “Trump-like” Sanders campaign.

“This is such a Trumpy lie from the Sanders camp, which rolls like Trump in many ways,” Bloomberg’s senior adviser Tim O’Brien wrote on Twitter just minutes after Gray made her claim. “Mike Bloomberg has *never* had a heart attack. Bernie Sanders, on the other hand, has had a heart attack. Those are the facts.”

He then tripled down on his Trump comparison: “It’s a dangerous time when Sanders goes all in with Trumpism.”

According to Axios — and per a letter made public by Bloomberg last year — Bloomberg “underwent coronary stent placement for a blocked coronary artery” back in 2000, but has “otherwise normal health function.” He is on a blood thinner, perhaps as a preventative measure against a heart attack, and a beta-blocker to handle his cholesterol level, but the letter makes no mention of any specific heart-related episode.

Bloomberg’s campaign also released a statement, authored by campaign manager Kevin Sheekey that said that ‘the surgery occurred after a positive stress test and has been ‘public for years’ since Bloomberg, who holds a pilot’s license, had to inform the FAA when it occurred,” per Axios.

Sanders’ press secretary tried to walk back her remarks, saying she “misspoke,” but then added that Bloomberg “underwent the same stent procedure as Bernie,” again trying to draw a connection between the two.

Sanders, of course, had a coronary stent procedure late last year after suffering chest discomfort while at a campaign event in Nevada. The discomfort turned out to be a mild heart attack and, after just a few days of rest at his home in Burlington, Vermont, Sanders was back on the trail, campaigning at his same, typically grueling pace.

Bloomberg, like former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), has been focused on driving a comparison between Sanders and President Donald Trump this week, following allegations that Sanders’ supporters harassed and threatened members of the Nevada Culinary Union after it refused to endorse a candidate in the caucuses. Over the weekend, so-called “Bernie Bros” erupted at the Nevada Democratic party, after dozens of Sanders delegates were disqualified at the party’s annual convention in Las Vegas and had to be removed by security.

Unlike Warren and Biden, though, Bloomberg has never gone head-to-head against Sanders in either a debate or primary contest. This weekend will be the first for the former, at least, when Bloomberg debates the Democratic field for the first time. He has not qualified for the Nevada primary ballot and is not an option for Nevada caucus-goers. Bernie Sanders, instead, is expected to win that contest, edging out Biden.