The Massachusetts Republican Party hascondemned U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Cambridge) over a controversial remark she made in the wake of the recent death of a health insurance executive.
UnitedHealthcare chief executive officer Brian Thompson was assassinated in New York on December 4, 2024, and a 26-year-old man arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, is being charged for murdering him.
Warren condemned the murder but said she understood why something like this could happen in the United States.
“The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the health care system,” Warren told HuffPost on Tuesday, December 10.
“Violence is never the answer, but people can be pushed only so far,” Warren added. “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.”
Massachusetts Republican Party chairman Amy Carnevale condemned Warren’s statement, saying this type of rhetoric could spark more violent attacks.
“Senator Warren’s words are beneath the dignity of the U.S. Senate. These types of statements risk creating a domino effect, emboldening others to commit similar acts against leaders they feel have wronged them,” Carnevale said in a written statement issued by the Massachusetts Republican Party on Thursday, December 12. “Her language is not only dangerous but also morally reprehensible. Senator Warren’s inflammatory rhetoric feeds into the toxic public discourse and further fractures the psyche of the American public in pursuit of political points.”
“We all understand that differences of opinion on policy are natural, but these disagreements must never escalate to jeopardizing the personal safety of business or community leaders,” Carnevale added. “The only acceptable course of action for Senator Warren is to issue a public apology to the Thompson family for her dehumanizing comments, as well as to the employees of UnitedHealthcare, the broader healthcare community, whose safety she has jeopardized, and the first responders who put their lives at risk to apprehend the murderer. Her words have sown division for years, and now is the time to de-escalate, not inflame. Senator Warren must reassess her approach and ask herself whether she can be proud of the example she is setting.”
One day after Warren made her remarks, Warren said she was careless with her words.
“Violence is never the answer,” Warren told Politico in a statement on Wednesday, December 11. “Period. I should have been much clearer that there is never a justification for murder.”
Warren supports eliminating private health insurance. She is a backer of Medicare-for-all, which would make the United States health care system a single-payer system run by the federal government. The proposal is controversial in Democratic circles, with many Democrats preferring a public option to achieve universal coverage. President Joe Biden, for example, has said he would veto Medicare-for-all if it came to his desk.
Senator Warren’s office could not be immediately reached for comment on Friday.
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