Who cares about Bernie Sanders' medical records?

We don't need them — not from him or any other candidate

Bernie Sanders.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Joe Raedle/Getty Images, Aerial3/iStock)

In the fall, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said he thought "the people do have a right to know about the health of a senator, somebody who's running for president of the United States — full disclosure." Since then, however, he's changed his mind. "I think we have released quite as much documentation as any other candidate has," Sanders said Tuesday night, and when asked whether he'd release additional information, he replied, "I don't think we will, no." What we already have will have to suffice.

That seems good enough to me. The expectation that candidates will divulge their full health records is relatively new and not nearly as necessary as we've come to believe. President Trump's decision to flout the tradition with his bizarre, absurdly superlative doctor's notes in the 2016 race — one of them later revealed to be dictated by Trump himself — has had many rushing to insist we need presidential contenders' medical reports. It's a defense unworthy of our time.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.