Taylor Lorenz Claims She Didn't Call Luigi Mangione 'Morally Good.' Here's Lorenz Calling Him 'Morally Good.'
Former Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz generated several headlines Sunday night after appearing on CNN’s "MisinfoNation" to discuss the women who have a crush on Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Lorenz isn't happy with the coverage of her comments, particularly a line in which she refers to the accused murderer as "morally good." According to Lorenz, she never said that.
"When you read the full quote you see that I’m actually saying *his supporters* view him as a ‘morally good man’, not that I see him that way (we don’t actually know his motivations/morals bc he hasn’t spoken yet). You ppl are exhausting," says one of her many posts on X and Bluesky Monday morning.
Well, let's check the tape.
"You’re going to see women especially that feel like, ‘Oh my God,’ right? Here’s this man who’s revolutionary, who’s famous, who’s handsome, who is young, who’s smart," Lorenz told CNN. "He’s a person that seems like this morally good man, which is hard to find."
Lorenz didn't preface her comments by saying, "This is how women see him." She said Mangione "seems" like a "morally good" man to her.
This is also the second time she has tried to pull this charade. In December, she used the term "joy" to describe how hearing about Thompson's murder made her feel.
"Over the past few days, dozens of media outlets have been running non stop headlines smearing me and pushing a deceptively edited clip that claims I felt ‘joy’ over the UnitedHealth CEO’s death. Let’s get one thing out of the way up top: that literally never happened," Lorenz wrote on Substack.
Again, let's check the tape of the quote in question.
"Why would you be in such a celebratory mood about the execution of another human being?" Piers Morgan asked Lorenz on his podcast. "Aren’t you supposed to be on the caring, sharing left where, you know, you believe in the sanctity of life?"
"I do believe in the sanctity of life and I think that’s why I felt, along with so many other Americans, joy, unfortunately," she responded.
Keywords: "I" and "joy."
Taylor Lorenz did not leave much room for interpretation when discussing how Thompson's murder made her feel. She used the personal pronoun "I" followed by the words "felt joy."
As for her claim that the clip was "deceptively edited," that's simply not true. Here is the entire segment on YouTube. Lorenz said exactly what the clip shows her saying: Thompson's murder brought her "joy."
Moreover, Lorenz acts as if her previous comments are not available. Late last year, she shared a photo calling Mangione a "hero" and called him a "national hero" in a separate post on Substack.
Let me guess: the same time-traveling Russian ninjas who hacked Joy Reid's blog hacked Lorenz's account.
Finally, Lorenz claims we shouldn't judge Mangione because his "motivations" are unclear. Maybe. Then again, he is facing charges of federal murder, stalking, state murder, and terrorism. Unless the police arrested the wrong individual, what possible "motivation" would justify murdering an innocent man?
As we argued in a column Monday morning, the more Lorenz discusses Brian Thompson and Luigi Mangione, the more she disqualifies herself from any form of respectability.
So, let her keep speaking.
Just make sure to correct her on her lies, like we just did.