UnitedHealthcare CEO Death Sparks Outrageous Complaint from TV Host

CNN can’t seem to spot the difference between the assassination of a health insurance executive who made his money denying millions of Americans health care access and the death of innocent people at the hands of police.

On Sunday, CNN host Michael Smerconish lamented that the American public hadn’t rushed to memorialize the outside of the midtown Manhattan Hilton Hotel where UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was assassinated earlier this month.

“I slowed my gait as I passed a side entrance to the Hilton Hotel, realizing that this was the same day in the same early morning hour in the precise location where, one week prior, a 50-year-old father of two was assassinated,” Smerconish monologued on air. “But something was missing. Any sign whatsoever of the tragedy that occurred right here, and which has captivated the nation.”

“We’ve all seen the crime scene that’s been shown many times in the media. But a week later, here’s what was left: a lone piece of NYPD crime tape affixed to a barrier. No memorial of the kind that often appears spontaneously after a similar tragedy.”

Smerconish then went on to compare Thompson’s death to some of the most tragic cultural touchstones in the nation’s recent history, including the murders of John Lennon, George Floyd, Heather Heyer, and Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

“But there was no sign of any makeshift memorial on 51st Street,” Smerconish added in a segment with the on-screen banner “a sad, new normalcy.”

What Smerconish seems to be missing, however, is the sad role that Thompson played in a system that increasingly prioritizes shareholder profits over successful medical outcomes for its clients. The public’s response to the executive’s death should be studied, not condemned, as an indictment on the sorry state and exploitative nature of America’s health care industry.

Federal data from 2022 compiled by the personal finance website ValuePenguin found that UnitedHealthcare far outpaced its competitors when it came to denying coverage, rejecting 32 percent, or roughly one in three claims. In 2024, the insurer’s parent group spent more than $5.8 million lobbying Congress on health care–related issues.

Meanwhile, Americans are paying more than ever for health insurance, with costs far outpacing the rate of inflation. A Kaiser Family Foundation report published earlier this year found that the vast majority of U.S. adults are worried about being able to afford a major medical expense, regardless of their financial position.

Lindsey Graham told Meet the Press that Donald Trump’s defense secretary pick, Pete Hegseth, plans on releasing the woman who accused him of sexual assault from her nondisclosure agreement, essentially forcing her to choose between saying nothing or going public with her story and subjecting herself to vile partisan attacks.

“He told me he would release her from that agreement,” Graham said. “I would want to know if anybody nominated for a high-level job in Washington legitimately assaulted somebody.

“If people have an allegation to make, come forward and make it,” the South Carolina senator added. “We’ll decide whether or not it’s credible. Right now [Hegseth is] being tried by anonymous sources. That will not stand.”

Despite Graham’s objections to “anonymous” allegations, the woman in question filed a police report against Hegseth, accusing him of sexual assault in 2017. The police report noted that she had bruises on her thigh. The defense secretary nominee and former Fox & Friends host later paid the woman an undisclosed sum.

Trump and Senate Republicans have done a 180 on Hegseth, from calling his allegations “very disturbing” to now being “in a good place with Pete,” as Graham said. Hegseth has been accused of sexual harassment, financial mismanagement of two different veterans’ groups, and workplace misconduct including intoxication and sexist behavior. Now the GOP is rallying around him in the same way they rallied around Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his 2018 nomination hearings. And as with Kavanaugh, they seem very prepared to make his alleged victim’s life hell.

“All of these are anonymous allegations. He’s given me his side of the story. It makes sense to me, I believe him. Unless somebody’s willing to come forward I think he’s gonna get through,” Graham continued. “Remember Kavanaugh? … We’re not gonna let that happen to Pete.”

Even Donald Trump’s staunchest allies can’t be saved from MAGA’s wrath.

Senator Lindsey Graham is facing the heat after he contradicted Trump’s prior comments on January 6 investigators, plainly stating in a Sunday interview with NBC’s Meet the Press that the government should not prosecute the officials who looked into Trump’s involvement in the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“President-elect Trump told me that he thinks the members of the January 6 Committee should go to jail. Do you agree with that statement?” asked host Kristen Welker.

After a brief pause, Graham offered a one-word response: “No.”

“OK, that was very clear and concise,” Welker said.

But that didn’t sit well with Trump’s frenetic base, who took to the internet to torch the South Carolinian for barely veering away from the president-elect’s philosophy.

“What is up with this guy? Who controls him? What dirt do they have on him? Other than him along with [NO NAME] involvement with Ukraine?” posted one popular MAGA account, PrayingMarine, on X. “Trump is right. This dude is dirty.”

Another pro-Trump influencer slammed Graham as a “snake.”

“He had no problem with innocent protestors and grandmas having their lives destroyed over Jan. 6,” posted @SirStevenKJ. “However, he believes the TREASONOUS Jan 6 Committee should not face prosecution or jail time. Nasty.”

Trump has made incredible overtures to the far-right followers who rioted through Congress, temporarily delaying the certification of the 2020 presidential election results. So far, he has promised to pardon convicted insurrectionists, but he’s also invited some to help shape his administration.

The president-elect has tapped one January 6 rioter—Pete Marocco—to help his transition into the White House on matters related to national security personnel.

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene suggested Saturday that the U.S. government is behind the scourge of drones reportedly descending on New Jersey.

“The government is in control of the drones and refuses to tell the American people what is going on,” Greene wrote in a post on X. “It really is that bad.”

Greene has a habit of amplifying conspiracy theories, often born on the far-right reaches of the internet.

This isn’t the first time the Georgia Republican has suggested that the government has summoned forces from the heavens. When Hurricane Helene struck the southeast United States in October, Greene suggested the government had its hands in weather manipulation.

“Yes they can control the weather,” Greene wrote in a post on X. “It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”

While the ‘they’ wasn’t explicitly stated, it was understood to be the federal government. In another post, she seemed to suggest that the hurricane was meant to target Republicans. And somehow, that’s nowhere near the most preposterous thing Greene has ever suggested.

Two years before she took office, Greene posted on Facebook linking mysterious “lasers or blue beams of light” to the 2018 California wildfires, and then tied those sightings to the Rothschilds, a wealthy Jewish banking family often evoked in blatantly antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Last week, Greene tried to stoke the fires of panic that get people such as Donald Trump elected by suggesting that the drone sightings were proof that the federal government could not keep Americans safe. Other Republicans have also jumped on the bandwagon. Former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan claimed that he’d seen some floating lights above his state—only for a meteorologist to point out that they looked a lot like Orion’s Belt.

Parkland shooting survivor and gun control activist David Hogg is running for vice chair of the Democratic National Committee. 

Hogg, 24, is hoping to inject some of his youthful, progressive energy into a party still licking its wounds and pointing fingers after a devastating election night loss in November.  

“I think this role is a great way of, for one, bringing newer voices into the Democratic Party,” the Gen Zer told ABC News. “I just want to be one of several of those voices to help represent young people and also, more than anything, make sure that we’re standing up to the consulting class that increasingly the Democratic Party is representing instead of the working class.”

Hogg also took particular aim at what he sees as complacency and a lack of accountability from party leadership, many of whom were quick to defend the Harris campaign while blaming others for their loss. Black men, leftists, and trans people have all been scapegoated. Hogg called this out.

“What really bothers me is, we say to people all the time, ‘Who’s to blame for this election?’ It’s young people, it’s X minority group … but really, who’s to blame for this? It’s us. It’s us. Ultimately, we failed to communicate, and we failed to have a broader strategy within the party to make sure that we were telling the president what he needed to hear, rather than what he wanted to hear, which was that he needed to drop out.”

There are four elected vice chair slots up for grabs within the DNC, with three general vice chairperson roles and one vice chairperson for civic engagement and voter participation. Hogg is younger than anyone else who’s thrown their name in, and his victory would be a generational shift in the party.

“We need to realize that we are increasingly the party of sycophants,” Hogg said. “We are just surrounding ourselves with people who tell us what we want to hear instead of what we need to hear; we’re increasingly surrounding ourselves with paid political consultants that … are letting what donors say to them guide their talking points.”