AOC, other progressives condemn violence but suggest justification for killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO
Several high-profile progressive figures have hedged on the murder of UnitedHealthCare CEO Brian Thompson after he was shot and killed in New York City, saying violence is wrong but conditioning their remarks with statements about the woes of the U.S. health care system.
Luigi Mangione was arrested Monday after a manhunt and charged with Thompson's murder, which was committed outside a hotel in Manhattan last week. Mangione has become a folk hero to some far-left figures who feel Thompson's death is a deserved backlash against health insurance giants like UnitedHealthcare that deny coverage or charge high premiums.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., condemned the murder this week but said that Thompson's death should also serve as a "warning."
"Violence is never the answer, but people can be pushed only so far," she told HuffPost. "This is a warning that if you push people hard enough, they lose faith in the ability of their government to make change, lose faith in the ability of the people who are providing the health care to make change, and start to take matters into their own hands in ways that will ultimately be a threat to everyone."
Warren made similar comments to MSNBC host Joy Reid about Thompson's murder.
"People are very angry about health care, I think for good reason, denying care, and the whole system … killing a CEO is not the way you change," Reid said. "You have to regulate them."
"We'll say it over and over," Warren said. "Violence is never the answer. This guy gets a trial who's allegedly killed the CEO of UnitedHealth[care], but you can only push people so far, and then they start to take matters into their own hands."
Warren later walked back her comments to Fox News Digital.
"Violence is never the answer. Period," she said. "I should have been much clearer that there is never a justification for murder."
Journalist Piers Morgan also clashed with left-wing journalist Taylor Lorenz over her apparent sympathy for Mangione during an episode of "Piers Morgan Uncensored" that aired Monday evening. During the program, Lorenz admitted she felt "joy" over Thompson’s death.
When a shocked Morgan confronted Lorenz for her comments, saying Thompson is a "husband and father," Lorenz replied, "So are the tens of thousands of Americans that he murdered! So are the tens of thousands of Americans, innocent Americans, who died because greedy health insurance executives like this one push a policy of denying care to the most vulnerable people."
She later said she never felt "joy over that man's death" but rather because more people are paying attention to the systemic problems in American healthcare.
"The View" co-host Sunny Hostin read out comments last week mocking Thompson's death on social media, saying that the celebration from some of the American public is "reflective about how people are feeling about their health care." At one point she said, "Isn't that something?"
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"Our country is one of the only countries that doesn’t have universal health care, and we don’t take care of our elderly and people are feeling the pinch," Hostin said. "We talk about that all the time and I think people are really angry at the health care system and, unfortunately, it’s translating to this father."
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has also spoken out following the murder of Thompson, saying violence wasn't "justified" but people view health insurance denials as their own act of aggression.
"This is not to say that an act of violence is justified, but I think for anyone who is confused or shocked or appalled, they need to understand that people interpret and feel and experience denied claims as an act of violence against them," she said this week.
Fox News' David Rutz and Gabriel Hays contributed to this report.