Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has issued a statement clarifying her previous remarks about the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, according to Politico.
In her initial statement earlier in the week, Warren, a progressive lawmaker known for stridently left-populist economic positions, appeared to suggest the shooting was an outgrowth of working-class anger over the cost of health care.
“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,” she said. “Violence is never the answer. But people can only be pushed so far.”
Speaking to Politico on Wednesday, Warren partially walked back her remarks, reiterating: “Violence is never the answer. Period. I should have been much clearer that there is never a justification for murder.”
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In many ways, the identity of the suspect in the shooting, Luigi Mangione, has thrown a wrench into the narrative developing about the murder, because, while there is evidence Mangione suffered from a painful back condition and he wrote a manifesto decrying the evils of capitalism, he is far from living a paycheck-to-paycheck existence; in fact, his family is wealthier than the CEO he is accused of killing.
Nonetheless, the killing kicked off an outpouring of frustrations as people shared their own experiences with the health care system and tight-fisted insurance companies specifically. Emotions have run so high that people directed their rage at the Pennsylvania McDonald's where police were tipped off about Mangione, flooding the restaurant with fake negative reviews.
Experts have sounded alarms at the apparent cheering on of violence, with some drawing comparisons to the political unrest over inequality and labor exploitation during the Gilded Age period of the late 19th century.