Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old Ivy League graduate accused of shooting and killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City earlier this month, President-elect Donald Trump said Monday during an interaction with reporters. He criticized the people who were fawning over him.
“I think it's really terrible that some people seem to be admiring him, the way he does,” President Trump lamented at a press conference at the Mar-a-Lago resort. . “It was a cold-blooded, just a cold-blooded, horrific murder.”
Trump, 78, added that he hoped it was “fake news” that so many people were rooting for the man accused of killing her husband and father of her two sons.
“Some people don't believe it. Maybe it's fake news, I don't know,” the president-elect continued. “It looks like you have some appetite.” [the assasin]. I don't understand. “
“How can people like this guy? It's actually sick, it's really, really bad. Especially the way it was done was really bad, right in the back,” he lamented.
Earlier this month, Thompson, 50, was shot in the back outside a hotel on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan.
Authorities later arrested Mangione. Mangione appears to have used some of the skills he acquired from his engineering and computer science degrees at the University of Pennsylvania to 3D print the firearms he allegedly used, a former friend previously said. For shooting.
Since then, many netizens have praised Mangione, cringing at images of Mangione's six-pack abs and gushing over the murder suspect's handwritten manifesto slamming the U.S. private health insurance industry. I am doing it.
Former Washington Post media reporter Taylor Lorenz said she found “joy” in the killing. Late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel joked that the writers drooled over Mangione's chiseled physique and expressed a desire to have him on the jury deliberating his case.
Politicians such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) have downplayed Thompson's execution by channeling anger against health insurance companies.
“Violence is never the answer, but there are limits to how far people can be pushed,” the Massachusetts Democratic Party said, later issuing the following statement: period. I should have made it clearer that murder can never be justified. ”
Evidence showed Mangione was suffering from lower back pain. then underwent surgery And he was angry at the health insurance industry. UnitedHealthcare claims he does not have insurance with the company.
President Trump was hit within a quarter-inch by a bullet during a July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and on September 15 at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. He has faced multiple assassination attempts, including one. , where the Secret Service foiled the plot of would-be assassin Ryan Wesley Routh.
Despite some fanfare online, some polls show Mangione is unpopular with a wide range of the public.
About 61% of Americans had a strong or somewhat negative view of him, according to the poll. Center for Strategic Politics.
Fundraising platforms have shot down efforts to raise money for his defense.
Mangione was charged with second-degree murder for possessing a false identification and illegally possessing a firearm.
