Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), one of the staunchest critics of the American health care system writ large among U.S. lawmakers, condemned the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Tuesday — but added that people “can be pushed only so far,” in an interview with the Huffington Post.
“The visceral response from people across the country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system,” Warren said, pointing to the outcrying of support from people online in support of Luigi Mangione, who is a suspect in the killing.
“Violence is never the answer,” Warren added. “But people can only be pushed so far.”
In a statement to POLITICO after this report published Wednesday, Warren said, “Violence is never the answer. Period. I should have been much clearer that there is never a justification for murder.”
Mangione has been charged with multiple counts in connection with the killing of Thompson, including one count of second-degree murder. On Wednesday morning, multiple outlets reported that fingerprints taken from the 26-year-old graduate of the University of Pennsylvania matched some of the prints found at the midtown Manhattan crime scene.
Written on the bullet casings at the crime scene were “deny,” “defend,” and “depose,” a possible nod to former Rutgers Law professor Jay Feinman’s 2010 book, “Delay, Deny, Defend: Why insurance companies don’t pay claims and what you can do about it.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who, like Warren, is a steadfast critic of the health care industry, also put the murder in the larger context of Americans’ frustration with the system.
Thompson’s murder was “outrageous,” Sanders said Tuesday, according to the Huffington Post. He added that what the outpouring of anger at the health care industry “tells us is that millions of people understand that healthcare 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.”
At least one Democrat was much more blunt in their condemnation of Mangione. Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman called him an “asshole that’s going to die in prison,” also in an interview with HuffPost.
“Congratulations if you want to celebrate that,” he added. “A sewer is going to sewer.”