Suspect charged with murder in UnitedHealthcare CEO killing | The Excerpt
On Tuesday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: A 26-year-old suspect has been charged with murder in the killing of UnitedHealthcare's CEO Brian Thompson. Paste BN Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page discusses how President-elect Donald Trump's takeover on foreign policy has begun. The Supreme Court rejects a case pitting the 'spirit of Aloha' against gun owners' rights. Paste BN Trump Reporter Zac Anderson talks about whether Donald Trump can use Jill Biden's image to sell perfume. Will the FDA ban red dye 3?
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more Paste BN podcasts right here
Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Tuesday, December 10th, 2024. This is The Excerpt.
Today, a suspect has been charged with murder in the killing of UnitedHealthcare's CEO. Plus, we discuss how Donald Trump's takeover on foreign policy has begun. And can Trump use Jill Biden's image to sell perfume?
♦
A Maryland man has been charged with murder in connection with the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare's CEO, Brian Thompson, in New York City last week. A criminal complaint filed by police in Altoona, Pennsylvania, also charged 26-year-old Luigi Nicholas Mangione with forgery, tampering with records or identification, giving police false ID, and possessing instruments of a crime. Authorities said they found a 3D printed handgun and a silencer when they searched Mangione's backpack while detaining him at a McDonald's in Western Pennsylvania. Police officers responding to a restaurant employee's tip said they recognized Mangione right away from widely distributed law enforcement photos once he removed his face mask upon their request.
According to the complaint, Mangione presented a fake New Jersey driver's license when first approached by officers, who said he grew silent and started shaking when they asked if he had recently been in New York City. Mangione was a private school valedictorian, an Ivy League graduate. His alleged crime has sparked a conversation around healthcare in the US, and how untraceable ghost guns and silencers can be assembled via a 3D printer. 50-year-old Brian Thompson was shot Wednesday on a Midtown Manhattan street outside a hotel where he was set to speak at an investment conference. Surveillance cameras show a shooter firing multiple times from behind Thompson at close range at about 6:45 AM. You can follow the latest developments on USAToday.com.
♦
President-elect Donald Trump's takeover on foreign policy has begun. I caught up with Paste BN Washington Bureau chief, Susan Page, for more.
Hello, Susan.
Susan Page:
Hey, it's great to be with you.
Taylor Wilson:
Always great having you on, Susan. So let's start with President-elect Donald Trump and Syria, obviously in the news this week, how did he react to these shifting tides in that country?
Susan Page:
He posted on social media, as he so often does, and in this case, he said this was not our business, we should not get involved. That is very consistent with his America-first approach to foreign policy, although we'll see if as president he can manage to keep out of the story there, such an important one that's unfolding.
Taylor Wilson:
Is this on message, considering how he's approached other conflicts in that region in the Middle East?
Susan Page:
He's been pretty involved in seeking peace in the Middle East, actually, and one of his signature achievements in his first term were the Abraham Accords that moved in that direction. So I think he will be involved in some ways in what goes on in the Middle East, and especially on behalf of Israel.
Taylor Wilson:
We know the war in Ukraine rolls on, how do we expect the incoming Trump administration to approach this conflict, and how will he or how might he differ from President Joe Biden?
Susan Page:
Boy, what a difference. We see the Biden administration now rushing weapons to Ukraine to get as much weaponry as they can get there before Trump takes over, because Trump has a very different approach to Ukraine. He met in Paris with the President of Ukraine, once again reiterating that he thinks it is time for a negotiated settlement of that war, that is likely to mean concessions on territory by Ukraine that Russia now holds.
Taylor Wilson:
Well, as we're closer to home, Susan, there are relationships with North American allies, Canada and Mexico, to consider, and things are off to an interesting start with these terror threats from Trump. Where do those relationships stand heading into next year?
Susan Page:
This was a surprise, I think, to the leaders in Mexico and Canada to hear right off the bat, soon after the election, Donald Trump's plans to impose 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, unless more is done to stop illegal immigrants from coming over the border and to stop the flow of drugs from there. And we saw the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, make an almost secret trip to Mar-a-Lago to meet with the President. Now, we found out about the trip, but it wasn't announced beforehand. He didn't get concessions when it came to tariffs, but it's a sign of how seriously he was taking the threat that he came and tried to meet with the President-elect so early in the process.
Taylor Wilson:
And Susan, just more broadly speaking, how really are foreign leaders approaching Trump this time around compared with his first term?
Susan Page:
You remember last time, eight years ago, when Donald Trump won in, everybody was surprised, many people in the United States, Donald Trump himself, and foreign leaders, and there was a certain amount of shock and alarm with his election last time around. That's different from now. Now, the leaders in foreign countries have dealt with Donald Trump over four years of his presidency, they are more familiar with how he operates, they have a more strategic approach to try to convince him to see things their way. It is a very different atmosphere for Trump than it was the first time around.
Taylor Wilson:
Let's talk about the Logan Act, Susan, what is this, and how might it or might it not apply to what Trump has been doing during this transition period?
Susan Page:
Well, this is a very early act, 1799, signed by President John Adams. Only twice have people been indicted for the Logan Act, no one has ever been convicted of violating it. But it prevents an American from negotiating with a foreign power on behalf of the United States if they're not authorized by the president to do so, and we certainly see the allies close to Trump violating the Logan Act. Elon Musk meeting with the ambassador to Iran, that would be an example, even Trump's meetings as president-elect with some foreign leaders. But no one's been indicted for it in more than a century. I think it reflects how things are different now. We used to have one president at a time, but with the re-elections for a second term of Donald Trump, he's been more than willing to speak out on foreign affairs, and you see foreign governments moving quickly to try to deal with him, because they know he'll be taking office on June 20th.
Taylor Wilson:
And Susan, as for Biden, he's still the president, what can we expect from him over his final few weeks in office when it comes to some of these issues abroad?
Susan Page:
This, of course, is very frustrating to President Biden and his team. He made a trip to Africa that got very little attention. His administration helped negotiate a ceasefire in Lebanon, that was a big achievement, the Trump people tried to take some credit for that. They're still working on trying to get a ceasefire to pause some of the violence in Gaza. So they haven't checked out yet, but they're getting less attention than they were, and they have less influence on the world stage than you'd think for the people who are still living, after all, in the White House.
Taylor Wilson:
Susan Page is Paste BN's Washington Bureau chief. Susan, I thank you for giving us some time, as you're always so kind to do, and Happy Holidays.
Susan Page:
And to you.
♦
Taylor Wilson:
Christopher Wilson had a loaded pistol in his waistband when the Maui Police Department in 2017 responded to a complaint that he was trespassing on private property. Wilson did not have a permit to carry that gun, and in a case that put a spotlight on Hawaii's strict gun regulations, as well as on its low rate of gun deaths, his challenge to the permit requirement made its way to the Supreme Court. The high court in recent years has embraced a looser approach to guns. The court yesterday declined to overturn a ruling in that case by Hawaii's top court.
The Hawaii court had touted the state's so-called spirit of Aloha, that it said was in contrast to the Justice's more gun-friendly record. Hawaii Supreme Court Justice Todd Eddins wrote that, "The spirit of Aloha clashes with a federally mandated lifestyle that lets citizens walk around with deadly weapons during day-to-day activities." Wilson had been challenging the state's requirement that he needs permission to carry a gun in public. The Supreme Court denied his appeal. You can read more with the link in today's show notes.
♦
Can Donald Trump use Jill Biden's image to sell perfume? I spoke with Paste BN Trump reporter, Zac Anderson, to learn more.
Zach, thanks for hopping on today.
Zac Anderson:
Glad to be here.
Taylor Wilson:
So just let's get to the basics, Zac, what is this fragrance line?
Zac Anderson:
So Trump released a line of perfumes and colognes on Sunday, he's calling them the Fight, Fight, Fight line, and he's selling them for around $200 a bottle, or you can get a deal, I think there's two for around $300, and some of them are already apparently sold out according to his website.
Taylor Wilson:
So Zac, this Jill Biden imagery specifically, how is he using her, and really, what's that issue?
Zac Anderson:
He actually used an image from just over this weekend, when both Trump and Joe Biden were in France for the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral that had gone up in flames, they were both there as part of this big ceremony to kick off the reopening of the cathedral. And there's an image of them talking, and Trump posted this image on Truth Social, and there's a caption that says, "A fragrance your enemies can't resist." So obviously poking at the Biden family, implying that this cologne has caused Jill Biden to be attracted to him in some way.
The question here though is whether he can use Jill Biden's image without her consent. There are laws that basically prohibit people from using somebody else's image for commercial purposes without their consent, and I talked to some legal experts and they said that Jill Biden potentially could have a case here. Although, some of them said that there's constitutional issues that come into play as well, where you have First Amendment rights of speech that could make it harder for her to try and sue him if it got to that point.
Trump has been facing ethical questions around his business interests, going back to when he first ran for president in 2015, there were concerns about him using the office of the presidency to promote his business. Ethicists that I talked to said they still have concerns about that, just the fact that he's continuing to [inaudible 00:10:27] these products. Obviously, he's not president right now, but when he becomes president again, I think a lot of these issues that ethics experts have raised in the past will become salient again. I think we're going to hear a lot of the same concerns going forward about whether he's using the presidency to benefit some of his businesses.
Taylor Wilson:
What's his perspective on all this, Zac, and have we heard from him answer to any of these issues that have been raised?
Zac Anderson:
I reached out to him for this story, I haven't heard anything from the campaign regarding this issue in particular. And the issue raised in this instance is more about whether he can use Jill Biden's image in his campaign to sell perfume than the broader ethical questions, although those are in play here as well.
Taylor Wilson:
Zac Anderson covers Donald Trump and Republicans for Paste BN. Thank you, Zac.
Zac Anderson:
Thank you.
♦
Taylor Wilson:
A red food dye prevalent in candies, drinks, and other products, could soon be banned in the United States, as federal regulators side with a petition that is under review. The Food and Drug Administration has signaled that it may finally crack down on the use of the additive known as Red Dye Number Three, an artificial dye that gives a cherry red coloring to thousands of American products. While the FDA has claimed that Red Three, like other additives the agency has approved, can be safe to consume, advocates have long called for its ban, amid concerns that the food dye is linked to cancer and behavioral problems in children.
At a Senate hearing last week, FDA Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods, Jim Jones, said it's been more than a decade since regulators have evaluated the safety of the synthetic color additive, and that, "With Red Three, we have a petition in front of us to revoke the authorization board, and we're hopeful that in the next few weeks, we'll be acting on that petition." The food dye is already largely banned in the European Union.
♦
And today is Human Rights Day, marking the inalienable rights that everyone is entitled to as a human being, enshrined in a landmark UN document in 1948.
♦
Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, and I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from Paste BN.