MUST WATCH: Bernie Sanders Presses RFK Jr. Over His 'Absurd Statement' About Prescription Drugs
What this video covers
Six minutes from Kennedy’s April 22, 2026 Senate hearing — this time on prescription drug prices and the administration’s health budget — and a second viral Sanders-Kennedy collision to pair with their September 2025 “everybody is corrupt” exchange. The setting is a Senate committee hearing; the subject is whether Americans are actually paying less for drugs under the Trump administration’s pricing initiatives.
Sanders quotes Kennedy’s earlier remark to Sen. Ron Wyden that Americans now pay “the lowest prices in the world” for prescription drugs and calls it “an absurd statement,” adding: “Nobody in the world believes that. Do you want to correct that statement?” Kennedy clarifies that his claim referred to specific drugs covered under the Trump RX pricing initiative — not the whole market — and concedes that many drugs aren’t covered by the agreements yet and that Americans still pay more on average than anyone else, “as we always have.”
The exchange widens: Sanders cites RAND Corporation data showing Americans paying multiples of what other wealthy nations pay (a cancer drug costing roughly $260,000 in the U.S. versus about $56,000 in Japan, in one cited example). Kennedy signals openness to banning direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical TV ads and to codifying European-style price caps. Sanders says he is offering an amendment to the budget process that would bar the U.S. from paying higher drug prices than other countries — “is that an amendment that you can support and get Republicans to come on board?” — and Kennedy answers, “We will work with you… that’s exactly what we want.”
Key points
- Sanders demands Kennedy retract the claim that Americans pay the world’s lowest drug prices, calling it “absurd.”
- Kennedy narrows the claim: it applied to drugs covered under the Trump RX initiative — naming GLPs, IVF drugs, COPD and asthma drugs, and insulin — not the overall market.
- Kennedy concedes Americans continue to pay higher drug prices on average than anywhere else — a significant on-the-record admission.
- Sanders cites RAND data on the U.S.-vs.-OECD price gap to argue the system, not individual deals, is the problem.
- Kennedy expresses theoretical support for banning pharmaceutical TV advertising, while noting constitutional hurdles — and claims HHS has sent “a thousand disciplinary letters” to advertisers, which he says has already changed what airs.
- He signals openness to European/Canadian-style price caps being written into law, and says the administration would work with Sanders on his budget amendment to codify them.
- On food labeling, Kennedy says obesity is costing “80% of Medicaid and Medicare dollars,” that HHS has worked out a federal definition of ultra-processed food, and that new labeling is “ready to go” pending interagency review — which he expects within about a month.
- As with the September 2025 hearing, the clip’s viral life comes from the personal friction — two of American politics’ most recognizable figures talking past each other on live television.