On Thursday, news broke that former Democratic presidential candidate and current senator of Vermont Bernie Sanders had skin cancer removed from his cheek. His team said the senator had "small basal-cell carcinoma removed from his cheek," as the New York Daily News reported. According to his office, Sanders had the cancer removed in an out-patient procedure.

The 75-year-old senator is set to serve as the outreach director for Senate Democrats. Considering that Sanders ran an unexpectedly (relatively) competitive race against long-time favorite Hillary Clinton for the party's presidential nomination and with so much of his support coming from younger voters, this leadership role is not exactly a surprising appointment. In fact, during the primaries, Sanders won the votes of more Americans under the age of 30 than Clinton and Donald Trump combined, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University.

Since the Democratic loss in the presidential election, Sanders has been far from silent. He is already an outspoken critic of the president-elect and his cabinet selections. When speaking with MSNBC's Chris Hayes earlier this month, Sanders called Trump a "pathological liar who changes his mind every single day."

Earlier this week on CBS' Face the Nation, Sanders slammed Trump's uber-wealthy administration choices. “I guess they have a few poor millionaires on it, but, mostly, it is billionaires,” the Vermont senator said, adding, "This is coming from a candidate for president, Mr. Trump, who told us he was going to take on the establishment. Well, maybe I am not seeing something here, but you don’t appoint the head of ExxonMobil to be secretary of state. That is not quite taking on the establishment.”

Although many Democrats criticized Sanders for helping to paint Clinton as a Wall Street shill with too many corporate ties — and, thus, hurting her run for the White House — Sanders is one of the most popular 2020 contenders. According to a Public Policy Polling (PPP) survey that included 4,000 registered Democrats who were interviewed Dec. 6 and 7, Sanders was the second most popular option for the party's presidential nomination. Vice President Joe Biden was the only Democrat who was more popular to represent the party.