Taylor Lorenz -- a controversial journalist formerly of the Washington Post -- is clarifying some of her comments about the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson ... and she says his brutal killing isn't the real tragedy here.
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PeopleTranscript
00:00Talk to us about what's behind this on its face.
00:06It looks like you're saying there should be open season on some of these CEOs.
00:12Absolutely not.
00:13So let me just be super clear.
00:14No, we should not murder CEOs.
00:16No, we should not go around shooting people in the street.
00:19That is the wrong lesson to take from this.
00:21As I know in my follow up post to that post about the other CEO, a letter writing campaign
00:26would be great.
00:27I'm a fan of nonviolent action as well.
00:30So but I think what's really missing in all of these conversations is context.
00:35When you see the entire Internet left and right united around one thing, and that is
00:41celebrating, I hate to say it to the death of a health care CEO, you have to ask why.
00:47And I don't think that has been discussed at all.
00:50There's no discussions of the systemic cruelty in our health care system or the fact that
00:54thousands of Americans die because CEOs like this one and others deny essential lifesaving
01:00care to Americans.
01:01And I think that's the real that's where this anger is coming from.
01:05And of course, people are going to get a little carried away and celebrate, but they're celebrating
01:10because it feels like a victory.
01:11It feels like somebody stood up to this barbaric, evil, cruel, violent system.
01:18And I hear what you're saying about getting people talking.
01:20But I want to go back, Taylor, to that.
01:22I mean, I know you later in the day, you said, look, what I want here is a campaign
01:28of peaceful letter writing to the CEOs.
01:32But the statement, I just want to put it up there one more time and see if how you feel
01:37about it, because this is the one that did sound like you were calling for violence,
01:42you said, and people wonder why we want these executives dead.
01:45I am speaking to the sentiment.
01:47People do want these executives dead.
01:49But you said we want them dead.
01:52I'm going to say I'm with the people in the sense that if you have watched a loved one
01:56die because insurance has denied them life saving essential health care, it is natural
02:02to wish that the people who run those systems would suffer the same fate as your loved one.
02:08And millions of people across America have had this experience.
02:14So yes, when I say do I wish someone dead, is that advocating for them to be killed?
02:22No, of course not.
02:23But am I going to shed tears or have a lot of empathy for somebody that has facilitated
02:29the deaths of thousands of innocent Americans through intentionally denying them coverage?
02:35I am not going to weep over it.
02:39I do think that loss of life is a tragedy.
02:41I'm very against death generally, you know, as a principle.
02:45But I think, again, why do we why do we mourn certain deaths and condone other deaths of
02:52innocent, vulnerable people?
02:54Do you think his death is what you say?
02:58His murder is murder, which is different from dying from an illness, which is horrible and
03:02should not be.
03:03And United Health Care has murdered people.
03:06Just to be clear, I would say United Health Care has murdered thousands of Americans by
03:09denying them coverage, life saving coverage.
03:11I get your point.
03:12I do get your point on that.
03:15Do you think that his murder, Brian Thompson's murder, is a good thing in terms of what it's
03:23done to bring all of this to the forefront?
03:27Here's the reality.
03:28This is something that is clearly affecting millions of people's lives.
03:33I don't it has made the media and politicians pay attention.
03:37I think it's a tragedy that a murder is what is forcing people in power to pay attention
03:43to this issue that is affecting everyone's lives.
03:46Again, one CEO shouldn't have to be murdered for them to care about the murder of tens
03:51of thousands of other innocent Americans.
03:53Right.
03:54That should be national news as well.
03:56So, yeah, I would love if it was not a murder.
03:59I would love if we just had a more just system and politicians and the media paid attention
04:05to the violence that happens every day at the hands of these insurance companies.
04:10Do you view this almost like a revolution where sometimes, you know, there is that kind
04:17of collateral damage, which may be the death of some of these people?
04:21But are you viewing this kind of like a revolution?
04:24I think a lot of people online are.
04:26I think that's deeply concerning because, again, we don't want a violent revolution
04:32in this country.
04:33We want nonviolent change.
04:35We want systemic change.
04:37Now, often systemic change only comes through violence when you look historically.
04:41However, it is about to be 2025.
04:44We have the Internet.
04:45I do think that the Internet gives people a voice.
04:48And I think hopefully, hopefully the media and people in power can look at this outpouring
04:54of sentiment and see, hmm, this is a problem in society.
04:59This is something we should address before we see further violence, because we don't
05:03want violence.
05:04The insurance system is violent enough.
05:07We want to stop violence here, and we want to save lives.