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In the wake of the shooting of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, lawmakers are weighing in on the crime and the reaction to it, including expressions of frustration many Americans feel toward the healthcare system.
Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York told Business Insider on Wednesday that the rapturous online response to the shooting and the valorization by some of the suspect, Luigi Mangione, was indicative of a "mass bubbling of resentment around the precarity that people have been living with."
"Of course, we don't want to see the chaos that vigilantism presents," said Ocasio-Cortez. "We also don't want to see the extreme suffering that millions of Americans confront when your life changes overnight from a horrific diagnosis, and people are led to just some of the worst, not just health events, but the worst financial events of their and their family's lives."
She added, "I think for people who are surprised, it's a wake-up call for how much of this exists in our society."
Democratic Rep. Maxwell Frost of Florida, who began his political career as a gun violence prevention activist, told BI that he's "against gun violence in all forms," but that he understood some of the reaction.
"There's so much animosity and hatred of this system that people are looking beyond maybe their typical moral scope to meme this guy, or to praise him, because the issue is just so pervasive," he said. "That's something to take note of."
Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts told HuffPost that the shooting was "a warning" to the healthcare industry — though she later told the outlet in a statement that she "should have been much clearer that there is never a justification for murder." Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont told the outlet that the "outpouring of anger at the health care industry" showed that "millions of people understand that health care is a human right."
Not all lawmakers on Capitol Hill are taking this approach — both Republicans and Democrats have opted to condemn the shooting and leave it at that.
"It's pretty simple to me. Nobody who commits cold-blooded murder is a hero. Period, full stop," Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut told BI.
"He's the asshole that's going to die in prison," Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania told NBC News about the shooter. "Congratulations if you want to celebrate that."
For some progressives, though, the praise for Mangione and the outpouring of frustration over the healthcare industry can't be ignored, even if it's coming on the heels of a murder they condemn.
"It's exactly the right time when you've got thousands of people that are sharing their stories of frustration," Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California told BI.
In his view, it's simple enough to talk about the healthcare industry while not making excuses for the alleged murder.
"There's no linkage," said Khanna. "You condemn the murder of an insurance executive who was a father of two kids. At the same time, you say there's obviously an outpouring behavior of people whose claims are being denied, and we need to reform the system."
