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Sanders Vows to Release Medical Records After Heart Attack

Sanders Draws Distinction With ‘Capitalist’ Warren as She Rises

(Bloomberg) -- Senator Bernie Sanders pledged to release his medical records “as soon as we can” after the 2020 Democratic hopeful suffered a heart attack this month.

The Vermont senator, 78, has been off the campaign trail since having two stents inserted to treat a blocked artery. He was diagnosed with a myocardial infarction, his doctors said in a statement on Oct. 4. He’s scheduled to return to campaigning in the next week, and said he’ll participate in Tuesday’s Democratic primary debate in Ohio.

“As soon as we can, and we intended to do that before the heart attack, and we’ll certainly do it with all of the information that’s available,” Sanders said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday when asked when he’ll release his records. “When you’re running for president of the United States, the American people have a right to know the condition of your health.”

His campaign on Saturday announced a “Bernie’s Back” rally in New York City on Oct. 19. Sanders said he didn’t think of dropping out of the race, and that he’s “feeling very well.”

Sanders said there were symptoms he should have heeded, including more fatigue, not sleeping well and “occasionally, I was a little bit wobbly.”

“I should have put two and two together, and I didn’t, and I’m sorry about that,” Sanders said.

Capitalist Warren

Sanders in the ABC interview also sought to stake out ground as the only true progressive in the Democratic race, calling Senator Elizabeth Warren, who’s emerging as a front-runner in the primary process, “a capitalist through her bones.”

Sanders Vows to Release Medical Records After Heart Attack

Recent polls show Warren of Massachusetts running neck-and-neck with -- or in some cases ahead of -- former Vice President Joe Biden at the top of the large Democratic primary field. Sanders, who ran as a progressive alternative to Hillary Clinton in 2016, is running in third place in most national surveys.

The CBS News Battleground Tracker poll showed Warren extended her lead in early primary and caucus states, now up 31% to 25% over Biden, according to the survey released Sunday. Warren tops Biden in New Hampshire, has pulled even in Iowa with Sanders close behind, while Biden continues to lead by a wide margin in South Carolina, CBS said.

Voters in early states also suggested Warren would be best equipped to handle attacks from President Donald Trump -- slightly better than Sanders and much better than Biden.

“There are differences between Elizabeth and myself,” Sanders said in the ABC interview. “Elizabeth, I think, as you know, has said that she is a capitalist through her bones. I’m not.”

In 2018 Warren told the New England Council, a regional business organization, that she was “a capitalist to her bones,” although many of her policy proposals are aimed at narrowing economic inequality in the U.S. She’s laid out a vision of what she calls “accountable capitalism.”

“I am, I believe, the only candidate who’s going to say to the ruling class of this country, the corporate elite: Enough, enough with your greed and with your corruption,” Sanders told ABC. “We need real change in this country.”

“Elizabeth considers herself -- if I got the quote correctly -- to be a capitalist to her bones,” he said. “I don’t.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Ros Krasny in Washington at rkrasny1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Ludden at jludden@bloomberg.net, Mark Niquette, Steve Geimann

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