Sanders defends Warren comments on ‘outrageous’ UnitedHealthcare CEO killing

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) defended Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) for her remarks about UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s shooting and the country’s health care system, calling it “outrageous” Thompson was killed.

Sanders joined NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday and was asked about Warren’s comments that the "visceral" response to Thompson’s death is a "warning" about how Americans view the industry. Warren later clarified and noted all violence is wrong.

“Elizabeth Warren obviously understands killing and murder and shooting somebody in the back is totally unacceptable,” Sanders said in remarks highlighted by Mediaite.

“But what I think has happened in the last few months is that — what you have seen rising up is people’s anger at a health insurance industry which denies people the health care that they desperately need while they make billions and billions of dollars in profit,” he continued.

Thompson was shot and killed earlier this month outside a Manhattan hotel where his company was hosting its annual investor conference. The suspect fled, and a days-long manhunt ensued.

Twenty-six-year-old Luigi Mangione was arrested in Pennsylvania last week as the suspected killer. He was arrested on gun charges in Pennsylvania and been charged with murder in New York but is fighting extradition.

Mangione has seen a flood of online sympathy and support, with many on social media expressing grievances with the U.S. health care system.

Warren argued in an interview with HuffPost last week that violence is never the answer but acknowledged “people can be pushed only so far.” She said the killing was a warning that if people are pushed far enough, “they lose faith” in government to make change and lose faith in the health care system.

Sanders agreed, noting it’s “outrageous” to kill anyone, and “nobody should applaud it.”

“I think what we need to ask ourselves when we talk about health care is why we are the only major country on Earth not to guarantee health care to all people, why we have a life expectancy which is significantly lower than in other countries, why working-class people die five to 10 years shorter than the people on top,” Sanders said.

The Vermont senator said he feels “very strongly” about the issue and said it was “long overdue” for the country to guarantee health care for its citizens.

The “goal of health care is not to make drug companies and insurance companies phenomenally rich, it’s to guarantee quality care to all of our people,” he said.