Massachusetts U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren stated “individuals can solely be pushed to this point” in an interview wherein she condemned the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
“The visceral response from individuals throughout this nation who really feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance coverage firms ought to be a warning to everybody within the well being care system,” Warren instructed the HuffPost in an interview.
“Violence is rarely the reply,” Warren stated. “However individuals can solely be pushed to this point.”
Warren had been requested about how many individuals had appeared to applaud Thompson’s broad-daylight execution in Manhattan per week in the past attributable to 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 business, which she has lengthy lambasted and labored to control.
“This assertion invents a non-existent connection between the insane assassin and United Healthcare, which didn’t push this wealthy child to do something, even by chance. He went loopy and killed somebody,” 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 response to the HuffPost piece, adopted up on Wednesday with a brand new assertion on the matter.
“Violence is rarely the reply. Interval,” the senator stated. “I ought to have been a lot clearer that there’s by no means a justification for homicide.”
Fellow New England progressive and critic of the business, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, made comparable feedback, accompanying his condemnation of Thompson’s homicide whereas additionally seeming to search out motive within the violent sentiments towards the insurance coverage business.
“I believe what the outpouring of anger on the well being care business tells us is that tens of millions of individuals perceive that well being care is a human proper and that you simply can not have individuals within the insurance coverage business rejecting wanted well being take care of individuals whereas they make billions of {dollars} in revenue,” Sanders stated.
Thompson, 50, was killed on Dec. 4 as he walked alone to a resort, the place UnitedHealthcare’s dad or mum 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 household 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 hope for all concerned.”
Mangione grew up in a outstanding actual property household within the Baltimore space, in response to the Affiliate Press. He attended an elite Baltimore prep college, graduating as valedictorian in 2016, in response to the college’s web site. He went on to earn undergraduate and graduate levels in laptop science in 2020 from the College of Pennsylvania, a spokesperson for the Ivy League college stated.
