Massachusetts U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren stated “people can only be pushed so far” in an interview wherein she condemned the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
“The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the health care system,” Warren instructed the HuffPost in an interview.
“Violence isn’t the reply,” Warren stated. “But people can only be pushed so far.”
Warren had been requested about how many individuals had appeared to applaud Thompson’s broad-daylight execution in Manhattan every week in the past as a consequence of his illustration of a “vile” medical health insurance enterprise practices.
Some observers didn’t admire Warren qualifying her condemnation of the homicide with commentary on the insurance coverage trade, which she has lengthy lambasted and labored to manage.
“This statement invents a non-existent connection between the insane murderer and United Healthcare, which did not push this rich kid to do anything, even accidentally. He went crazy and killed someone,” Billy Gribbin, Utah Sen. Mike Lee’s communication director, wrote in response to Warren’s feedback in a tweet HuffPost linked to within the story.
Warren, in keeping with the HuffPost piece, adopted up on Wednesday with a brand new assertion on the matter.
“Violence is never the answer. Period,” the senator stated. “I should have been much clearer that there is never a justification for murder.”
Fellow New England progressive and critic of the trade, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, made related feedback, accompanying his condemnation of Thompson’s homicide whereas additionally seeming to search out cause within the violent sentiments in opposition to the insurance coverage trade.
“I think what the outpouring of anger at the health care industry tells us is that millions of people understand that health care is a human right and that you cannot have people in the insurance industry rejecting needed health care for people while they make billions of dollars in profit,” Sanders stated.
Thompson, 50, was killed on Dec. 4 as he walked alone to a resort, the place UnitedHealthcare’s father or mother firm, UnitedHealth Group, was holding its annual investor convention, police stated.
Luigi Nicholas Mangione, 26, of Maryland, was arrested Monday for Thompson’s homicide after a McDonald’s buyer in Altoona, Pennsylvania, acknowledged him from a surveillance picture. He was formally charged with the homicide by Manhattan prosecutors later that day.
“Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest,” Mangione’s household stated in an announcement posted on social media late Monday by his cousin, Maryland lawmaker Nino Mangione. “We provide our prayers to the household of Brian Thompson and we ask individuals to wish for all concerned.”
Mangione grew up in a distinguished actual property household within the Baltimore space, in keeping with the Affiliate Press. He attended an elite Baltimore prep college, graduating as valedictorian in 2016, in keeping with the college’s web site. He went on to earn undergraduate and graduate levels in pc science in 2020 from the College of Pennsylvania, a spokesperson for the Ivy League college stated.
