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Comedian Bill Burr suggested during an interview published Tuesday that the Luigi Mangione murder case involving the killing of a healthcare CEO should prompt healthcare companies to examine their policies.
“I mean, if you look at all of this stuff, like the response to the Luigi [Mangione] thing, it wasn’t, ‘Maybe we need to look at what we’re doing if it makes some crazy person do this.’ [Healthcare executives’] response was to take their faces off the internet and get security,” Burr said in an interview with Rolling Stone.
“It’s like, you don’t think you need to examine this?” he continued. “You’re not the president. You’re just the CEO of a business. Why do you need this level of security?”
UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a husband and father of two children, was murdered in December 2024. Mangione pleaded guilty in federal court Aug. 14 to murdering Thompson.
LUIGI MANGIONE PLEADS GUILTY IN FEDERAL COURT TO STALKING AND KILLING UNITEDHEALTHCARE CEO BRIAN THOMPSON
Bill Burr distanced himself from the politically incorrect humor of the past about women, saying that looking inward has been part of his journey as a comedian. (Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images)
Attorney Rafael Mangual, the Nick Ohnell Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, spoke to Digital about Burr’s comments.
“The only way to understand the comedian’s comments is as an endorsement of brutal and extrajudicial violence as a legitimate means of expressing one’s frustrations with corporate behavior,” he said. “The fact of the matter is that Brian Thompson was a victim of a cold-blooded murder. Full stop.
“Luigi Mangione isn’t a hero or a martyr,” Mangual continued. “He shot a man in the back for no other reason than that he objected to the business he was in.
“Expressing anything other than condemnation of such an act is to open an enormous can of worms that Burr clearly hasn’t contemplated,” he added. “His remarks reveal that he hasn’t grappled with the most basic questions. For example, if homicide is on the table as a way to express various gripes, where do we draw the line? Who decides which lives are on the table? What pain is someone deeply offended by a comedian allowed to inflict as a result?
“I prefer these decisions be made by legislatures, judges and juries,” Mangual said. “So too should Mr. Burr.”
ILHAN OMAR STAFFER SHREDDED FOR DOWNPLAYING HEALTHCARE CEO’S KILLING AFTER LUIGI MANGIONE GUILTY PLEA
UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, left, in a corporate headshot. He was killed Dec. 4, 2024, outside a Manhattan hotel while on his way to a shareholder conference. The suspect, Luigi Mangione, pictured in court on the right, pleaded guilty in the killing. (Businesswire, Steven Hirsch for New York Post via Pool)
Burr was once known for being a politically incorrect comedian but acknowledged to Rolling Stone that his perspective has changed, noting how he has distanced himself from past language about women.
“This whole journey of being a comedian is when I stopped doing this and started doing a little more of that. Like, ‘Hey, Bill, maybe chicks aren’t psychos. Maybe you’re bringing something to the party, you know?'” he said. “My whole view on women is changed now. I look back on all of the dumb s— that I said. It had nothing to do with how I felt.
“I wanted to be married. I wanted to have kids. I just didn’t know how to do it. So, what did I do? I blamed what I wanted. It’s stupid. I missed out on a lot of good times, being that brooding guy.”
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Comedian Bill Burr performs at the Bob Golub Stand-up For Deaf, Hard Of Hearing Fundraiser at Flappers Comedy Club and Restaurant Burbank on Sept. 27, 2022, in Burbank, Calif. (Michael S. Schwartz/Getty Images)
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‘ Michael Ruiz and Maria Paronich contributed to this report.
