Ilhan Omar staffer shredded for downplaying healthcare CEO’s killing after Luigi Mangione guilty plea
Former NYPD lieutenant Darrin Porcher discusses Luigi Mangione pleading guilty to federal stalking charges. Mangione admitted to shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as his defense tries to dismiss state murder charges.
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
The operations director for a controversial leftist congresswoman downplayed the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson after Luigi Mangione pleaded guilty to related charges last week.
"You’ll never convince me that Luigi is a villain while everyone in the Epstein files is roaming free," Briana Rose Lee said Friday on X after Mangione pleaded guilty to interstate stalking resulting in death and cyberstalking/use of interstate facilities resulting in death.
Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., is currently seeking re-election for her fifth term in Congress. Lee's X bio says she does "operations" for the progressive congresswoman. Her LinkedIn profile confirms she has been working for Omar since January 2024, and that she is the former chairwoman of the Minneapolis Democratic-Farm-Labor (DFL) party.
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., sits with fellow Democrats on the House Education and Labor Committee during a bill markup, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Omar stirred controversy last week saying that Israel's supporters are pushing U.S. lawmakers to take a pledge of "allegiance to a foreign country." Omar is not apologizing for that remark, and progressives are supporting her. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
"On the morning of Dec. 4, 2024, I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan," Mangione told the court during last week's proceedings. "I knew what I was doing."
Thompson, a husband, father-of-two and the top executive at UnitedHealthcare, was a Minnesota resident who lived in the suburbs of Minneapolis — just outside of Omar's district. He was in New York City for business at the time of his death.
Lee faced some backlash for her post.
"You know you have sold your soul for your political beliefs when you are supporting an assassin who murdered a Minnesota father in cold blood," one X user said in a reply to the post. "You and many others need to seek help."
Luigi Mangione attends a pre-trial appearance at Manhattan Criminal Court, in New York City, U.S., August 11, 2026. REUTERS/
"This comment perfectly highlights the mental illness plaguing the Democratic Party. Completely ignorant and psychotic," said another.
"Luigi changed nothing about our healthcare system. And he killed an innocent man," wrote a third.
Omar's office and campaign did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment on her staffer downplaying the killing of a Minnesotan.
Other leftists kined Lee in dismissing Mangione's actions, including one well-known podcaster who served as the national press secretary for independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders during his short-lived 2020 presidential campaign.
"Talking about Luigi as a 'killer' without mentioning the tens of thousands of deaths Brian Thompson was responsible for is manufacturing consent for corporate genocide,'" Briahna Joy Gray wrote on X. "The problem with cops is their selective enforcement of crime. It’s about protecting monied interests. Not you."
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, right, D-New York, speaks with Briahna Gray, a senior politics editor at The Intercept, during South by Southwest on Saturday, March 9, 2019, in Austin, Texas. (Nick Wagner/Austin American-Statesman via AP)
Gray's post drew the ire of at least one elected Democrat.
"Luigi Mangione is a cold-blooded assassin who belongs in prison for the rest of his life," said Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., from his personal X account. "Any civilization that lionizes a cold-blooded murderer has forfeited the right to call itself civilized."
In response, Gray referred to Torres as a "baby killing Zionist coward."
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.