Bernie Sanders Defends Elizabeth Warren Over CEO Murder Gaffe: She ‘Understands’ Killing Was ‘Totally Unacceptable — But…’

Tommy ChristopherDec 16th, 2024, 9:35 am
 

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) defended Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) over her remarks about the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson being “a warning” — offering his own contextual analysis for the “totally unacceptable” killing.

Luigi Mangione was arrested last Monday for the murder after a frantic manhunt amid the ghoulish celebration of the crime and a groundswell of fury from masses of health insurance industry critics.

Warren drew fire when she tried to measure that fury when she called the killing “a warning” in remarks she later clarified.

On Sunday morning’s edition of NBC’s Meet the Press, anchor Kristen Welker played the comments and asked “Is this the right time in the wake of this horrific murder to be talking about health care policy?”

Sanders defended Warren and similarly described the anger around health care:

KRISTEN WELKER: And I want to ask you about one of the issues that you cited that you care deeply about. You obviously chair the Senate Health Committee. I want to get your reaction to the horrific shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Your colleague, Senator Elizabeth Warren, said this.

[BEGIN TAPE]

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN: Violence is never the answer. This guy gets a trial who’s allegedly killed the CEO of UnitedHealth. But you can only push people so far and then they start to take matters into their own hands.

[END TAPE]

KRISTEN WELKER: Senator Warren quickly clarified. She said, “Violence is never the answer. Period. I should have been much clearer that there is never a justification for murder.” My big-picture question for you though, Senator: Is this the right time in the wake of this horrific murder to be talking about health care policy?

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: Look, Elizabeth – I – Elizabeth Warren obviously understands killing and murder and shooting somebody in the back is totally unacceptable.

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. So, killing anybody, shooting somebody in the back who was the father of two, is outrageous. And it’s unacceptable. Nobody, nobody should applaud it. I know Senator Warren did not.

But 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.

So, Kristen, I feel very strongly about this, and I think the time is long overdue for us to guarantee health care to every man, woman and child, especially at a time when we’re spending twice as much per capita on health care as the people of every other nation. The goal of health care is not to make drug companies and insurance companies phenomenally rich, it is to guarantee quality care to all of our people.

Watch above via NBC’s Meet the Press.

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