Former WaPo reporter says 'we want these executives dead' after murder of health insurance CEO
Former Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz appeared to celebrate UnitedHealthcare CEO Brain Thompson’s brutal murder on her Bluesky account Wednesday.
Former Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz wrote several social media posts appearing to celebrate UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s murder while suggesting other executives should also be targeted.
Thompson was shot and killed at close range in midtown Manhattan Wednesday morning, outside the Hilton Hotel. The suspect remains at large.
"And people wonder why we want these executives dead," Lorenz wrote hours later, referencing Thompson’s death in a Bluesky post with a report about Blue Cross Blue Shield no longer covering anesthesia for the full length of some surgeries.
Lorenz also posted an image of Blue Cross Blue Shield CEO Kim Keck with a similar article on both Bluesky and X.
She reposted another user who wrote, "[H}ypothetically, would it be considered an actionable threat to start emailing other insurance CEOs a simple ‘you're next’? Completely unrelated to current events btw."
She later seemed to defend the harsh posts, claiming there’s "very justified hatred" against CEOs for the "amount of death and suffering" for which they allegedly bear responsibility.
"People have very justified hatred toward insurance company CEOs because these executives are responsible for an unfathomable amount of death and suffering. As someone against death and suffering, I think it’s good to call out this broken system and the ppl in power who enable it," Lorenz wrote.
Lorenz shared several posts written by other social media users attacking Thompson and seeming to justify his death through the implication that he had killed scores through inadequate health insurance.
"He will be shown the same empathy he showed for others every single day," one post read.
Another post read, "My insurance will neither cover monoclonal antibodies to prevent COVID or sufficient Paxlovid to treat COVID. They have no problem with my suffering or possible death. Murder is wrong, no matter how it's done."
"'Every life is precious' stuff about a healthcare CEO whose company is noted for denying coverage is pretty silly," a third one read.
She also shared other left-leaning journalists’ posts, including Jezebel staff writer Kylie Cheung and journalist Ken Klippenstein, who's had past stints at The Intercept and The Nation.
Cheung wrote, "the way we're socialized to see violence only as interpersonal—not see state violence (policies that create poverty/kill), structural violence, institutional violence—is very deliberate. same w/ panics about ~shoplifting~ vs how much corporations steal from every single one of us."
"No s--- murder is bad. The jokes about the United CEO aren’t really about him; they’re about the rapacious healthcare system he personified and which Americans feel deep pain and humiliation about," Klippenstein wrote. In another post, he quipped that he hoped Thompson's ambulance ride "was in network."
Thompson was 50 years old and left behind a wife and two sons.
Lorenz clarified her post that read, "And people wonder why we want these executives dead," telling Fox News Digital, "my post uses the royal we and is explaining the public sentiment."
"That said, healthcare executives absolutely want people dead as long as it helps their bottom line and that’s the entire problem," Lorenz said. "My sympathies are with the innocent people who have died or suffered after being denied coverage by greedy insurance companies."
When asked about her post about Keck, Lorenz told Fox News Digital her "motivation" was "to show who was behind this type of decision."
She added to her post about the Blue Cross Blue Shield CEO on X, "I hope people learn the names of all of these insurance company CEOs and engage in very peaceful letter writing campaigns so that they stop ruthlessly murdering thousands of innocent Americans by denying coverage."
"Healthcare is a human right. We need universal healthcare now," Lorenz added.
Lorenz left The Washington Post in October and launched her User Magazine Substack. The far-left writer also had a past stint at the New York Times and has been embroiled in several online controversies over the years.
In 2022, she infamously sobbed on the air during an MSNBC interview about alleged online harassment she'd faced, in a moment that was derided by conservatives. Lorenz then criticized the progressive network for how it had handled the story.
Known for her extreme fears of COVID-19, she went viral earlier this week when she fretted that people not wearing masks in 2024 were "raw-dogging the air."
