Sen. Bernie Sanders and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg Image by Getty/Forward Montage

By Aiden Pink February 19, 2020

The campaigns of Sen. Bernie Sanders and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg traded jabs Wednesday over each other’s health history.

After his heart attack in October, Sanders, 78, promised “full disclosure” about his medical status. But while the campaign has released letters from doctors assessing that he was fit to campaign again, he has yet to release results of a full medical workup.

When asked by CNN on Wednesday whether Sanders would release such a document, spokeswoman Briahna Joy Gray said that such questions were a “smear.” She also claimed that Bloomberg, who is the same age as Sanders, had “suffered heart attacks in the past” but hadn’t come under the same scrutiny.

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Bloomberg’s doctor revealed in a medical report in December that the former mayor had a stent inserted in 2000 to alleviate a blocked artery and takes blood thinners for an irregular heartbeat. However, there is no record of Bloomberg having had a heart attack, let alone multiple ones.

Bloomberg campaign manager Kevin Sheekey said Gray’s claim of multiple heart attacks was “an absolute lie.” Gray later backtracked, writing on Twitter that she “misspoke” and that Bloomberg “underwent the same stent procedure as Bernie.” Sanders received two stents following his heart attack.

Aiden Pink is the deputy news editor of the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @aidenpink

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