In a media moment as surreal as it is disturbing, Taylor Lorenz — the social media influencer and ex-journalist known for courting controversy — has once again made headlines, this time for championing the alleged assassin of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Her bubbly CNN interview defending Luigi Mangione, currently on trial for a brutal and calculated murder, has stunned even hardened political observers.
Mangione, 26, isn’t just a defendant in a high-profile federal case. He’s become something closer to a digital icon among certain pockets of the online far left. After allegedly executing Thompson in the streets of Midtown Manhattan last December, Mangione reportedly fled the scene, leaving behind a journal that prosecutors say details a motive steeped in anti-corporate rage and revolutionary fantasy.
After interviewing lefties like Lorenz who celebrate the killing of capitalists, CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan helpfully notes: “While America’s roots are soaked in bloodshed, violence in the country today is mostly from right-wing extremism. From Oklahoma City to Charlottesville to… pic.twitter.com/uZcX0UVg3J
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) April 14, 2025
In the eyes of prosecutors, this was a targeted, ideologically driven killing — an act of domestic terror meant to send shockwaves through the health insurance industry. In the eyes of a growing number of online followers, it was something else entirely: a statement, a stand, even a sacrifice.
The Reddit group r/FreeLuigi has mushroomed into a shrine of obsession, boasting over 38,000 users — mostly young women — who swap romantic fan art, share hand-stitched tributes, and send notes (and sometimes socks) to the federal facility where Mangione is held. Some refer to him in saintly tones. Others simply post about his “dreamy” looks.
In an interview with CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, Lorenz dismissed widespread media condemnation of the Mangione fangirls as hypocrisy. “As if we don’t stan murderers,” she said, referencing America’s cultural obsession with true crime and Netflix dramatizations. The delivery was light. The subject matter, anything but.
So what exactly does a liberal have to say to get banned from a cable news network?
Because I know for a conservative, it’s a lot less than simp for a murderer as a doughie CNN correspondent nods in approval https://t.co/4owIqN9cc9
— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) April 14, 2025
Pressed on whether celebrating an alleged killer crossed a moral line, Lorenz leaned into the psychology of her peers. “You’re gonna see women especially that feel like, ‘oh my God, here’s this man who’s a revolutionary… who seems like this morally good man.’” The implication? That murder, in the right political context, might be reframed as justice.
Her comments stirred fury — not only for their glibness but for the timing. The Trump administration has announced it will seek the federal death penalty, a rare move not seen in Manhattan for 70 years. U.S. Attorney Pam Bondi minced no words: “This was a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination… we will carry out President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again.”
This is a doughy CNN correspondent nodding approvingly while a psychopath asserts it’s fine to support cold-blooded murder for political reasons.
This is CNN. https://t.co/1GOZPZ12ny
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) April 13, 2025
The rise of Luigi Mangione as a countercultural figure is part of a growing phenomenon: the romanticizing of violent actors when their crimes are cast as ideological resistance. The line between rebellion and savagery is being blurred by a generation raised on memes, trauma bonding, and algorithm-driven idol worship. This is not the anti-hero archetype of classic literature — it’s a Frankenstein born of TikTok and Twitter, cloaked in the aesthetic of social justice.
And Lorenz? She’s not just reporting on it — she’s feeding it. Last December, she told Piers Morgan she felt “joy” over the assassination. Though she later softened it to “not empathy,” the damage was done. Celebrating the murder of a father of two, in any form, betrays not just moral clarity but societal cohesion.
