Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Sen. Elizabeth Warren<\/a> (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 \u2014 but added that people \u201ccan be pushed only so far,\u201d in an interview with the Huffington Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe 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,\u201d Warren said, pointing to the outcrying of support from people online in support of Luigi Mangione, who is a suspect in the killing.<\/p>\n \u201cViolence is never the answer,\u201d Warren added. \u201cBut people can only be pushed so far.\u201d<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the Massachusetts senator didn\u2019t immediately respond to POLITICO\u2019s request for further comment.<\/p>\n 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<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n Written on the bullet casings<\/a> at the crime scene were \u201cdeny,\u201d \u201cdefend,\u201d and \u201cdepose,\u201d a possible nod to former Rutgers Law professor Jay Feinman\u2019s 2010 book, \u201cDelay, Deny, Defend: Why insurance companies don\u2019t pay claims and what you can do about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Sen. Bernie Sanders<\/a> (I-Vt.), who, like Warren, is a steadfast critic of the health care industry, also put the murder in the larger context of Americans\u2019 frustration with the system.<\/p>\n Thompson\u2019s murder was \u201coutrageous,\u201d Sanders said Tuesday, according to the Huffington Post. He added that what the outpouring of anger at the health care industry \u201ctells 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.\u201d<\/p>\n At least one Democrat was much more blunt in their condemnation of Mangione. Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman<\/a> called him an \u201casshole that\u2019s going to die in prison,\u201d also in an interview with HuffPost.<\/p>\n \u201cCongratulations if you want to celebrate that,\u201d he added. \u201cA sewer is going to sewer.\u201d<\/p>\n