WASHINGTON (TNND) — Taylor Lorenz, a former reporter for The New York Times and former columnist for The Washington Postsaid during a performance Piers Morgan uncensored She felt “joy” when UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was killed.

Thompson was shot on a New York City street last week, sparking a police investigation. Authorities announced Monday that Maryland native and Ivy League graduate Luigi Mangione is now their prime suspect.

Lorenz addressed the murder, saying her reaction was due to her belief in the “sanctity of life.”

“I think that’s why I, like so many other Americans, unfortunately felt joy,” Lorenz said. The show’s co-hosts appeared to grimace in response.

“Joy?” Morgan interjected. “Serious? Joy at a man’s execution?”

“Maybe not joy, but certainly not empathy,” she added.

“We’re looking at the footage. How can that please you?” Morgan pressed as security camera footage of the shooting appeared on the screen. “He’s a husband, he’s a father and he was shot in the middle of Manhattan. Why does this make you happy?”

Lorenz went on to accuse “greedy health insurance executives” of killing Americans by denying them care.

“Should they all be killed then?” Morgan asked. “Would that make you even happier?”

“No, that wouldn’t be the case,” said Lorenz. She continued to condemn “vigilante justice” but said she supported the way the killing had drawn attention to America’s health care system.

“The idea that I would consider it something gratifying that a man – he’s just a healthcare executive – being shot in the street, I find completely bizarre.”

Lorenz wrote an article on her Substack page last week titled “Why ‘We’ Want Insurance Executives Dead.” She clarified that she was not speaking in her personal capacity but was summarizing the online sentiment in response to the murder.

“If you have watched a loved one die because an insurance company denied them life-saving treatment to cut costs, it is natural to wish that those who run such companies would suffer the same fate,” she wrote.

“That’s what the media doesn’t understand. “You don’t see insurance bosses sanctioning the deaths of thousands of innocent people every year by denying them insurance coverage that is often deemed medically necessary by doctors and is viewed as violent,” Lorenz added.

Lorenz notes in her Substack profile that she can no longer work for legacy media companies because she wants “autonomy over what I publish and deem newsworthy.”

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