Charlamagne condemned those celebrating the cold-blooded assassination of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, giving a reality check about its larger implications.
“I don't understand why people celebrate his murder,” the radio host said on his show “The Breakfast Club” on Friday. “His children don't have a father.”
Mr. Charlamagne argued that Luigi Mangione, who is accused of premeditatedly shooting Mr. Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel, had done nothing to help ordinary Americans.
“The health care system hasn't changed,” he says. “The medical company is still denying the allegations and everything today. So what has it accomplished and why is it happy that he was shot like that?”
Many netizens reacted with nothing but glee to the December 4th murder, citing flaws in the health insurance industry.
When police finally arrested Mangione, a troubling number of people hailed the wealthy Ivy League graduate as a hero, showering him with praise and even offering to pay his legal fees.
They also voiced disdain for the anonymous fast food employee who spotted Luigi at a McDonald's in Pennsylvania, labeling him a “snitch” and a “rat.”
Charlamagne said Thompson was not a monster and his killer was not a hero.
He urged listeners to recognize Thompson as a fellow human being and to stop glorifying the ruthless criminal who ended his life.
What we know about the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson
- Brian Thompson, CEO of insurance giant UnitedHealthcare, was shot and killed in a “brazen, targeted attack” outside a luxury midtown hotel on Wednesday, police said.
- Mr. Thompson was appointed CEO of UnitedHealth in April 2021. He joined the company in 2004. He was one of several senior executives at the company under investigation by the Justice Department.
- Thompson's wife, Paulette, said she had received threats before her husband was killed.
- The Thompson shooting sparked an online frenzy and even sparked a tasteless lookalike contest in New York.
- A dignitary was arrested by police inside a McDonald's store in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
- The suspect has been identified as Luigi Mangione, 26, of Towson, Maryland. He was an Ivy League graduate who hated the medical world.
Follow the Post's live updates on news about Brian Thompson's murder.
“That 26-year-old Luigi, or whatever his name is, he's going to be in prison for the rest of his life,” the host said.
Mangione, the wealthy child of a prominent Maryland real estate family, is likely a sociopathic narcissist, mental health experts told the Post.
Manhattan psychologist Chloe Carmichael, Ph.D., said, “His determination that his opinion has value even when he completely ignores some of our society's most fundamental laws… There's a sense of grandeur,” he said.
Experts say Mangione's social media posts and the short manifesto he was wearing at the time of his arrest show a confused ideology, ranging from preaching against capitalism to condemning wokeness.
He also has special admiration for Ted Kaczynski, also known as “The Unabomber.”
Alison Cohen, a New York psychotherapist, likens Mangione to serial killers like Ted Bundy and Charles Cohen, saying, “Antisocial personality disorder is a person's ability to feel empathy and compassion for others.'' It is in a state of lack.” “In the case of a cold-blooded murderer, that callousness is literally a lack of emotional consideration.”
