Senator John Fetterman has slammed New York magazine for saying the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was, ‘inevitable’.
The Pennsylvania Democrat blasted the outlet in an post on X on Saturday in which he decried ‘s**tty takes’ on the murder.
Thompson, 50, was gunned down steps away from a Hilton hotel in midtown Manhattan in the early hours of Wednesday. His attacker remains at large despite a massive manhunt.
‘No shortage of s**tty takes on the 2024 election or on this assassination,’ Fetterman said.
‘The public execution of an innocent man and father of two is indefensible, not ‘inevitable.’ Condoning and cheering this on says more about YOU than the situation of health insurance.’
His comments came after New York published an article titled, ‘The Shooting That Was Inevitable. Our political system is breaking down. Now it has killed.’
A motive has not been released by police, however bullet casings found at the scene were inscribed with the words ‘deny’, ‘defend’ and ‘depose’.
The messages bear similarity to a 2010 book by Jay M Feinman called ‘Delay, Deny, Defend’, which details ‘why insurance companies don’t pay claims and what you can do about it.’
Thompson’s killing has placed the healthcare insurance sector under the microscope amid speculation the gunman had a vendetta against his company.
UnitedHealthcare was recently forced to shutdown comments on its social media pages after it was inundated with irate comment from patients who allege their medical claims have been denied.
On other corners of the internet, many people have been openly cheering Thompson’s death and have styled the killer as a vigilante figure.
A UnitedhealthCare post paying tribute to the late executive attracted callous comments and more than three thousand ‘laugh’ emoji reactions.
On Saturday, Mayor Eric Adams said the ‘net is closing in’ on the culprit as he revealed that police now have a name.
The city leader said it will not be released at this stage as investigators are hoping to catch the killer off guard.