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Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders and Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin were involved in a heated back and forth during a Senate hearing Tuesday that sparked immediate reactions across social media.
“Everybody we bring up here, you guys chastised for trying to make changes,” Mullin said during a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing on Wednesday. The committee was discussing issues with Obamacare during a hearing on the nomination of Casey Means as U.S. Surgeon General.
“God forbid we change and try to fix our broken system,” Mullin continued. “Anyway, I ranted too long.”
As Mullin was attempting to return to the topic, he was cut off by Sanders, who said, “Yes, you did.”
Mullin responded, “I’m sorry, I didn’t ask your opinion on that and if I cared about your opinion I would ask you. But I don’t care about your opinion. You’re part of the system. You’re part of the problem. You’ve been sitting here longer than I’ve even been alive. This is your problem. You should have fixed this a long time ago. You’ve been railing on it for so long. What have you been doing?”
Sens. Markwayne Mullin and Bernie Sanders clashed during a Senate hearing on Wednesday (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images; Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Sanders responded by sarcastically saying, “I decided not to run for surgeon general, you’re the nominee I’ve decided.”
“That is definitely something we would never accept,” Mullin said before moving on.
The exchange was quickly picked up by conservatives on social media, including from “Charlie Kirk Show” executive producer Andrew Kolvet, who wrote in a post on X that “things did not end well for the octogenarian socialist” after he took a “cheap shot” at Mullin.
“That’s what his commie supporters can’t figure out,” comedian Tim Young posted on X. “Bernie has been in office so long that he should have solved their problems by now.”
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Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., is seen after visiting a meeting of the House Republican Conference in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
“Finally,” journalist Anna Matson posted on X. “Someone put Bernie Sanders in his place. He’s all talk and no action. He’s been in office longer than I’ve been alive and he has nothing to show for it.”
“Swamp being DRAINED,” political and sports commentator Dan Dakich posted on X.
“HOLY SMOKES,” conservative journalist Eric Daughterty posted on X. “Sen. Markwayne Mullin just PUMMELED Bernie Sanders to his FACE.”
Senate clashes involving Sanders and Mullin have been increasingly common in recent years, including a viral moment in 2023 when Mullin and Teamsters President Sean O’Brien almost came to blows during an exchange Sanders was in the middle of.
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Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, arrives for a confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
This past December, the two clashed on the Senate floor, also over Obamacare, in an exchange that Mullin posted on X in which he referred to Sanders as “The Grinch” and said the Vermont senator “blocked our bipartisan bill, the Mikaela Naylon Give Kids a Chance Act, to give kids fighting cancer more treatment options.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the offices of Mullin and Sanders for comment.
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