The suspect in the UnitedHealth Care assassination is being praised by some as a 'hero.'
Luigi Mangione, 26, is accused of shooting and killing company CEO Brian Thompson, 50, outside of a hotel in Midtown Manhattan just before 7 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 4. On Monday, a few days after the murder, Mangione was charged in the shooting.
Since then, social media posts from activists and random citizens and statements from top members of Congress have surfaced with some defending or even praising Mangione.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said he saw growing support for “vigilante justice.” Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren said “people can only be pushed so far,” seeming to sympathize with Mangione for his alleged actions. Mangione, who currently sits in a jail cell in Pennsylvania, described himself as a martyr against "corporate greed" and the insurance industry.
Disgraced journalist Taylor Lorenz appeared on Piers Morgan's show soon after the murder and said she felt joy following Thompson's death. She was also seen giggling multiple times.
The #FreeLuigi and memes quickly started to take over social media sites too where people defended Mangione and showed no sympathy to Thompson or his family.
Fox News Contributor Joe Concha called the type of rhetoric coming from members of the left "sickening."
"What we're seeing online and even on television in celebrating this murder is absolutely sickening," he said.
Concha called Thompson an "exceptionally good person" who now leaves behind a wife and two children. To him, the assassination doesn't advance any arguments about how people feel about the current health care system in the United States.
"Imagine seeing your dad or your husband murdered on video over and over again," Concha said. "That's something that you live with every day for the rest of your life."
As a way to protest the U.S. health care system, Concha suggested people go to Canada, which he joked as being the country's 51st state, to see how their system works in comparison.
"See how quickly you get an emergency surgery or see how fast their ER rooms are," said Concha, who called the current health care system in the U.S. "not perfect."