Debate crowd cheers after Sanders says he’s ‘feeling great’ when asked about heart attack

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Tuesday addressed his recent heart attack and whether it would affect his fitness to serve as president, drawing cheers from audience members in Ohio when he said he was “feeling great.”

Sanders told CNN moderator Erin Burnett he was “healthy” and “feeling great” during the debate, his first since taking a break from the campaign trail after suffering a heart attack.

{mosads}Burnett then pressed him on how he would reassure voters that he was up to the stressful job of commander in chief.

Sanders responded by saying he would demonstrate his vitality by “mounting a vigorous campaign all over this country,” starting with a “major rally we’re having in Queens, N.Y.”

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) quipped that Sanders “supports medical marijuana.”

“But I’m not on it tonight,” Sanders joked in response.

Bernie Sanders addresses concerns regarding his health: “I’m healthy. I’m feeling great” #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/K4qKRclQ56

— Variety (@Variety) October 16, 2019 

Sanders went on to thank those who reached out to him after his heart attack, including his onstage rivals, and expressed gratitude to “so many people from all over this country for their love, for their prayers, for their well wishes,” adding, “I just want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart.”

Sanders underwent a stent procedure earlier this month to treat a blocked artery after he experienced what one of his senior advisers initially called “chest discomfort” during a campaign event in Las Vegas. Days later, after Sanders was discharged from the hospital, his campaign revealed that he had suffered a heart attack.

Sanders later said it was “dumb” for him to be as active as he had been.

“During this campaign, I’ve been doing, in some cases, three or four rallies a day, running all over the state — Iowa, New Hampshire, wherever,” he told reporters. “And yet I, in the last month or two, just was more fatigued than I usually have been.”