Hear how social media is defending Luigi Mangione

Breaking news. The alleged CEO killer Luigi Manzoni, denied bail as many people are sympathizing with him online tonight. The book Delay denied defend, which is about the health insurance industry's tactics, jumping to number two on Amazon's nonfiction bestsellers list.

Number two, safe to say that book would never have been anywhere near number two if it were not for Luigi Manzoni. Those three words, delay, denied, defend were almost identical to the ones found on shell casings near the crime scene and on Yelp. The McDonald's where he was apprehended has been hit with a flood of one star reviews, calling the employees, quote, snitches and rats.

Jason Carroll is OutFront. This Ivy League hottie named Luigi is the Robin Hood that we never knew that we needed. I listened to Luigi's Manifesto this morning three times and I cried.

Honestly, it's beautiful and I agree with him. At least. He left a very powerful message and he highlighted how terrible the health care system is.

America. I think I'll go down as a hero in history. He had been a name suspect for less than 48 hours, and yet within a fraction of that time, many in the world of social media had already made up their minds about Luigi Mangione.

I'm just eating it up because this is like a regular, everyday person becoming our hero, our vigilante. These types of comments angering law enforcement and public officials. I don't care your views about health care companies because I don't think they're great right now either.

But you do not celebrate the assassination of another human being was just doing his job. But interest in Mangione just continues to grow. On X before his arrest announcement, he had just 64 followers, now more than 320,000 and counting.

His initial 827 followers on Instagram grew exponentially Monday as we watched by 3:00 more than 32,000. An hour later, 53,000 by 5:00 Monday, more than 71,000 followers before that account was suspended. Many of the comments calling for his freedom and calling him a hero.

Hear me on this. He is no hero. The real hero in this story is the person who called 911 at McDonald's that McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where workers spotted the 26 year old eating and called 911 Monday, targeted by Mangione supporters.

What am I going to do? I'm going to stop eating McDonald's. It got so bad Google had to remove reviews after that location was flooded with negative comments.

Someone hung a banner above I-80 three with the words deny, defend, oppose, health care for all. A reference to bullet casings left at the crime scene. Amazon pulled apparel and Home goods featuring the phrase online.

Mangione may be a folk hero to some, but offline and in person, no shortage of those condemning him. Health care is a mess in this country. But to celebrate somebodys death is sickening.

The people in these high positions, like CEOs, they need to look at themselves in their company and ask themselves, why are people so ready to condemn us? Why are they so willing to call someone who supposedly killed another human being a hero? Well, some suspect support for Mangione is not all about rage against health care, but instead something far more subjective and superficial.

It's the halo effect, like manifesting in real society. You really like. I truly believe so.

Like people treat people who are attractive, like way differently. People are like giving him leeway with this because they are fantasizing him a little bit. But I don't think violent should ever be the answer, no matter the circumstance.

Aaron, this could just end up being one of those cases that just ends up capturing the attention of the American people for a period of time. I mean, you look at what's happening right now on eBay at last check still selling merch related to this case and the hashtag free. Luigi Mangione is something that's still trending even at this hour.

Aaron, Jason, thank you very much. Was fascinating just to hear from all of those people. RJ Martin is back with me now.

He's the owner of Surf Break Honolulu, now, a co-living community in Honolulu where he lived with and was good friends with Luigi Mangione, the suspected CEO killer. So, RJ, I'm glad to speak with you again. As as things happen here, it's it's so important to have your input and insight because you know him better than than.

Well, many I mean, most people that were close to him. So when you see the video of your friend Luigi shouting entering court today to face these charges, you know, and he was basically resisting and he's fighting and he's screaming out, what do you think when you see that? Is that is that in any way the person that, you know, I would like to I'd like to comment on the video of him giving his valedictorian speech.

Yeah. Good, thoughtful, humble, good listener that that's the Luigi. I know somebody who could lead a conversation, but at the same time, listen more than he spoke.

somebody who, you know, really cared about those around him and had a larger mind that was socially conscious, somebody that was just good to me and the other people that, that we live together with that surf break and, and so, you know, and I know you've talked about that's the person that you knew, obviously not not the, the, the sort of anger and the rage that we saw today. And you said you didn't see or hear any anger or rage, even when he was talking about things like capitalism or housing or health care or things that he was, had criticism for, but that that was an intellectual sort of criticism, as you described it to me before, he had posted a review for the Unabomber manifesto online, and that's been available for a while for people to see. Right.

And I know as part of the book club that he had started with you at Surf Break, you know, he had also put the Unabomber manifesto is something for that group. What did he say about that at the time? you know, we had a lively discussion about the manifesto as a group, a collective discussion, but nothing about it, I think, stood out more than other conversations that we had.

And, you know, frankly, I think after reading and skimming part of it, I don't think the ideas in it were that original. in terms of, you know, you know, how we're destroying our planet and how we need to reevaluate our systems. so nothing about that conversation stuff stuck out.

He wasn't upset. He wasn't angry. I've never seen him upset or angry.

Even, definitely would put him in the the chill, like, nonviolent category of people. So, last night, we when when we spoke, you talked about his back and how much that was just weighing on him and the pain that even a basic surfing lesson kept him in bed for a week. He had to get a new mattress.

And police are now saying they think that that that back pain may be central to what happened here. I'm curious, though, when you talked about, his social life a bit when you and I had that conversation, we didn't get to talk about the implications of the pain that he was going through. Did he?

Did he date when you knew him? Did he talk at all about his romantic life? You know, if you are in severe pain on and off, it's obviously going to affect all aspects of your life.

you know, out of respect for his privacy and for the surgery community privacy, I, don't want to comment at all on his dating or any of the other members dating. Well, while we live together, you know, I don't mean whether they were dating. I just mean I know that, you know, you've talked a bit about the the you know, how how the pain that he had could have made it impossible for him to be physically intimate, and that this was something that may have been frustrating for him.

as they try to understand sort of what he was going through. Do you think that this could end up being something important? I think that pain is, something that can change our brain chemistry.

You know, I think it's something that changes our thoughts. and I don't know, because I don't have firsthand knowledge from him of how much pain he was in or what he was dealing with. But I do know, you know, from personal experience and from other friends and family that when somebody's suffering, the way they think about themselves and the world, gets warped drastically.

And a lot of times you, you go to dark places when you're in excruciating pain and, you know, perhaps not receiving the care or the support that you need.