Comedian Bill Burr used an interview published Tuesday to challenge the response of healthcare executives after the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Rather than simply increasing security, Burr suggested [1] companies should examine what about their conduct could produce such fury in a person like Luigi Mangione.
Burr told Rolling Stone, “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.”
He then questioned why corporate leaders would react by seeking extensive protection.
“It’s like, you don’t think you need to examine this?” Burr asked, before contrasting the position of a business executive with that of the president.
“After the Lindsay Clancy murders, no toddlers around the country asked ‘maybe we need to look at what we’re doing if it makes some crazy person do this’…I mean…it was postpartum, which she only had cuz she had them”
You people have lost your fucking minds.Murder bad. https://t.co/rsme8Me8Po [2]
— Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) September 23, 2026 [3]
His comments centered on the killing of Thompson, who was a husband and father of two children.
Thompson was killed Dec. 4, 2024, outside a Manhattan hotel while he was on his way to a shareholder conference.
Mangione pleaded guilty in federal court Aug. 14 to murdering Thompson.
The case and Burr’s response became a subject of discussion for Fox News host Greg Gutfeld and the “Gutfeld!” panel.
Attorney Rafael Mangual, the Nick Ohnell Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, offered a forceful rebuke of Burr’s position in comments to Fox News Digital.
He argued that Burr’s remarks went far beyond criticism of corporate practices.
“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,” Mangual said.
Mangual emphasized Thompson’s status as the victim of the attack.
“The fact of the matter is that Brian Thompson was a victim of a cold-blooded murder. Full stop.”
He also rejected any portrayal of Mangione as a heroic figure. “Luigi Mangione isn’t a hero or a martyr,” Mangual said.
“He shot a man in the back for no other reason than that he objected to the business he was in.”
Mangual warned that any response short of condemnation could create dangerous questions about when violence might be considered an acceptable answer to a grievance.
He said Burr had not confronted the implications of allowing homicide to become a means of expressing anger.
Among the questions raised by Mangual were where such a line would be drawn, who would decide which lives could be targeted, and what violence might be justified against someone whose work causes offense.
He applied that concern directly to comedians and people who might be deeply offended by their material.
Mangual said decisions concerning punishment and accountability should remain with established legal institutions.
“I prefer these decisions be made by legislatures, judges and juries,” he said.
“So too should Mr. Burr.”
The Rolling Stone interview also addressed Burr’s changing perspective on his own comedy.
Once known for politically incorrect humor, Burr acknowledged that he has distanced himself from language he previously used about women.
“This whole journey of being a comedian is when I stopped doing this and started doing a little more of that,” Burr said.
He described that process as looking inward and considering whether his own behavior had contributed to the conflicts he blamed on women.
“My whole view on women is changed now,” Burr said.
He also looked back critically at things he had said in the past and maintained that those comments did not reflect what he truly wanted from his life.
Burr said he had wanted marriage and children but did not know how to achieve those goals.
Instead, he said, he blamed the very things he wanted and lost opportunities for happiness while remaining withdrawn.
“I missed out on a lot of good times, being that brooding guy,” Burr said.
His reflections on his personal evolution appeared alongside his provocative argument that healthcare executives should examine their own policies rather than focus only on removing their images and adding security.