Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) known as tech billionaire Elon Musk a “smart guy” and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “right” about America’s “unhealthy society,” as they put together to take management positions in President-elect Trump’s subsequent administration.
In an interview with Enterprise Insider on Tuesday, Sanders listed areas the place he may discover frequent floor with Musk, somebody he’s beforehand criticized as a risk to democracy.
Musk has been chosen to co-lead Trump’s new Division of Authorities Effectivity and has promised to chop again on spending.
“If somebody on the other side has a good idea, sure, I’ll work with them,” Sanders instructed the outlet.
He famous that many issues Musk did throughout Trump’s marketing campaign have been “really ugly,” however acknowledged he’s a “very smart guy” who is correct to name for an impartial audit of the Protection Division.
“We need a strong military, but we don’t need all the waste and profiteering and the fraud that exists in the Pentagon right now,” he stated.
Sanders additionally agreed with Musk about chopping protection spending in a submit on social platform X earlier within the week.
“Elon Musk is right. The Pentagon, with a budget of $886 billion, just failed its 7th audit in a row. It’s lost track of billions,” Sanders stated within the Sunday submit. “Last year, only 13 senators voted against the Military Industrial Complex and a defense budget full of waste and fraud. That must change.”
Sanders, a co-chair of the Senate well being committee, additionally discovered frequent floor with Kennedy.
Kennedy has been chosen to steer the Division of Well being and Human Providers (HHS). He’ll doubtless face a tough affirmation course of within the Senate on account of his controversial well being opinions and plans to “Make America Healthy Again.”
Sanders and Kennedy each goal to tackle processed meals throughout the nation.
“When Kennedy talks about an unhealthy society, he’s right,” Sanders instructed Enterprise Insider. “The amount of chronic illness that we have is just extraordinary.”
Sanders famous the hundreds of thousands of individuals throughout the nation dwelling with weight problems and diabetes and the impacts not solely on the well being care system, however others, too.
“We want our people to have long lives, productive lives, happy lives. That’s what we want,” he stated. “And if the industry is giving our kids food that’s making them overweight, leading to diabetes and other illnesses, clearly that’s an issue that we’ve got to deal with.”
Sanders talked about he thinks Kennedy’s anti-vaccine stance is “kind of crazy” and a conspiracy idea, however total, “some of what he’s saying is not crazy.”
