41% of young voters say UnitedHealthcare killing ‘acceptable’: Poll

LAUREN TAYLOR: A new poll finds that 41% of young voters say the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was acceptable. The Emerson College poll finds the rate among 18-to-29-year-old voters was nearly twice as high as any other age group.

The poll is one of the clearest indicators yet of the backlash toward the insurance industry that the killing has sparked.

A plurality of young voters found the killer’s actions acceptable – 41 percent. 30-to-39-year-olds had the next highest rate of saying they were acceptable, at 23 percent.

Overall 17% of voters say the killer’s actions were acceptable, compared to 68 percent saying they were *not* acceptable.

Police arrested 26-year-old suspect Luigi Mangione in Pennsylvania after a days-long nationwide manhunt to find the culprit behind the killing in New York City. He now faces a charge of murder in New York and other lesser charges in both New York and Pennsylvania.

Both before and after Mangione’s arrest, posters online lionized the suspect. Likening him to a folk hero and making light of the killing.

Other polls find the reaction comes as people are developing less favorable views of the healthcare system and more favorable views of violence.

A Gallup poll published earlier this month found Americans’ approval of the healthcare system fell to the lowest level in the 21st century.

And last year, a survey by the Public Religion Research Institute found that nearly a quarter of Americans agreed with the idea that violence may be necessary to save the United States.

For Straight Arrow News, I’m Lauren Taylor.

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