Politics
Warren on UnitedHealthcare CEO’s killing: ‘People can only be pushed so far’
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), one of the staunchest critics of the American health care system writ large among U.S. lawmakers, condemned the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Tuesday — but added that people “can be pushed only so far,” in an interview with the Huffington Post.
“The visceral response from people across the country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system,” Warren said, pointing to the outcrying of support from people online in support of Luigi Mangione, who is a suspect in the killing.
“Violence is never the answer,” Warren added. “But people can only be pushed so far.”
A spokesperson for the Massachusetts senator didn’t immediately respond to Blue Light News’s request for further comment.
Mangione has been charged with multiple counts in connection with the killing of Thompson, including one count of second-degree murder. On Wednesday morning, multiple outlets reported that fingerprints taken from the 26-year-old graduate of the University of Pennsylvania matched some of the prints found at the midtown Manhattan crime scene.
Written on the bullet casings at the crime scene were “deny,” “defend,” and “depose,” a possible nod to former Rutgers Law professor Jay Feinman’s 2010 book, “Delay, Deny, Defend: Why insurance companies don’t pay claims and what you can do about it.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who, like Warren, is a steadfast critic of the health care industry, also put the murder in the larger context of Americans’ frustration with the system.
Thompson’s murder was “outrageous,” Sanders said Tuesday, according to the Huffington Post. He added that what the outpouring of anger at the health care industry “tells us is that millions of people understand that healthcare is a human right and that you cannot have people in the insurance industry rejecting needed health care for people while they make billions of dollars in profit.”
At least one Democrat was much more blunt in their condemnation of Mangione. Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman called him an “asshole that’s going to die in prison,” also in an interview with HuffPost.
“Congratulations if you want to celebrate that,” he added. “A sewer is going to sewer.”
Politics
Time magazine to name Trump ‘Person of the Year’
Donald Trump is expected to be named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” — and to celebrate the unveiling of the cover, the president-elect will ring the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday morning, according to three people familiar with the plans granted anonymity because they were not authorized to divulge the honor.
Last year, pop superstar Taylor Swift won the honor. To mark the magazine cover reveal, Time CEO Jessica Sibley rang the opening bell.
Trump was also named Time Person of the Year in 2016 after he won the presidential election. He joins 13 other U.S. presidents who have received the recognition, including President Joe Biden.
A short list for Time Person of the Year was announced Monday on NBC’s “The Today Show” and included Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris, Kate Middleton, Elon Musk and Benjamin Netanyahu.
Time already announced NBA star Caitlin Clark as Athlete of the Year, Elton John as Icon of the Year and Lisa Su of Advanced Micro Devices as CEO of the Year.
A spokesperson for Time said the magazine “does not comment on its annual choice for Person of the Year prior to publication. This year’s choice will be announced tomorrow morning, Dec. 12, on Time.com.”
The incoming president has long been fixated with being on the covers of magazines, especially Time.
The “Person of the Year” goes to a newsmaker who has had a significant impact on the year’s events, and in the past has included people ranging from Winston Churchill and Queen Elizabeth II to Vladimir Putin and Joseph Stalin.
Trump in 2013 called the magazine’s annual list of influential people “a joke and stunt of a magazine that will, like Newsweek, soon be dead. Bad list!”
And in 2015, Trump complained that he was not chosen for the magazine cover that instead went to then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel. But he went on to call being named “Person of the Year” a “great honor.”
“It means a lot, especially me growing up reading Time magazine. And, you know, it’s a very important magazine,” Trump said.
Trump has been featured on the magazine cover three times this year.
Politics
Texas intends to lease land for Trump’s deportation plans
Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham said she has offered a 1,400-acre ranch on the Texas-Mexico border and intends to lease it to the Trump administration for its mass deportation plan. Buckingham joined NewNation’s Blake Burman on “Blue Light News” Tuesday, where she said she anticipates the state leasing the federal government the land once the Trump…
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Politics
Johnson says new GOP agenda will be ‘very aggressive beginning right out of the gate’
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said in a Fox News interview that aired Monday that his party’s new agenda will be “very aggressive beginning right out of the gate.” “Special Report” anchor Bret Baier questioned Johnson about a report from The New York Times about the House Speaker soon having to deal with a miniscule…
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