Liberal pundit Krystal Ball quipped that Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin, Tyler Robinson, is “not as good-looking” as suspected UnitedHealthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione to amass a following.
Ball appeared on her YouTube program, “Breaking Points,” over the weekend to discuss the latest news on Robinson, when guest Emily Jashinsky chimed in about the bizarre phenomenon of murderers who attract a “cult following” after making headlines for their heinous crimes.
“You end up with a Charles Manson cult around someone, a cult following where people are obsessed and get fixated on someone in prison,” Jashinsky said.
“Even Mangione, you see some of this after he said he was innocent, which means you could really be misdirecting people in different ways. Hopefully, that doesn’t happen here.”
Ball then joked that Robinson, 22, did not have the looks of Mangione to gain such a following.
“Well, he’s not as good-looking as Mangione so he’ll be less inspirational to people,” Ball said.
Jashinsky then dropped her head into her hands over the joke.
“Tell me I’m wrong!” Ball pressed.
Ball’s joke ultimately led to outrage online, prompting Jashinsky to defend the wisecracked remark on X.
“We were! But what the clip leaves out is that I was arguing it’s GOOD the FBI, as of Friday, was getting us quick answers so that a Luigi-style cult of personality doesn’t develop around this freak, who @krystalball was rightfully calling ugly because he is. Joke was on him, 100%,” Jashinsky wrote.
However, not everyone was convinced by Jashinsky’s response — including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
“My team respects you, but why did you laugh at her callous, cruel statement?” Giuliani wrote.
“Krystal’s facial expression as she said it is what is particularly concerning to us. It’s disgusting and vile. Where is her humanity?”
“because it was a joke about a monster being hideous, which he is — inside and out,” Jashinsky replied to the former mayor.
Robinson, 22, had a rabid “obsession’’ with Kirk and vowed to “take out” the conservative influencer because he “hated” his views — boasting he had the perfect murder plan, the FBI revealed Monday.
In Mangione’s deranged “manifesto,” he ranted that UnitedHealthcare and other insurers deserved to be attacked because they “literally extract human life force for money.”
The 27-year-old allegedly killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, 50, on Dec. 4, 2024, to prove a political point about the health insurance industry.
Both suspected killers are due to appear in court on Tuesday.
Robinson is expected to face capital murder charges in Utah for allegedly assassinating Kirk.
Mangione — who has already pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges of killing Thompson — is due in a New York court, where a judge is expected to rule on several outstanding motions, including defense motions to dismiss state murder charges and exclude specific evidence.
The day before Robinson and Mangione’s scheduled court appearances, the NYPD counterterrorism and intelligence bureau issued an assessment cautioning about continued threats of violence directed at political, business, and civic leaders.
“The targeted attack occurred against the backdrop of an increasingly volatile threat environment in the US amid ongoing concerns over the targeting of and violent threats persistently aimed at prominent political figures, CEOs, public officials, and other dignitaries. These individuals likely remain vulnerable at open-air speaking engagements and public events, which have been targeted by malicious actors seeking to advance political or ideological agendas and/or draw attention to unique personal grievances through violence,” the document, obtained by ABC News, said.
“This attack, along with a series of recent high-profile assaults linked to actors with a host of grievances, underscores the continued need for heightened vigilance among law enforcement officers and private-sector security personnel with dignitary/executive protection responsibilities. Rather than aligning with a single extremist ideology, malicious actors may adopt a personalized, hate-filled worldview drawn from a mix of beliefs, amplifying the risk of future attacks by lone offenders that glean tactical/targeting inspiration from prior acts of high-profile violence and find support in permissive online environments.”
The NYPD assessment also warned that the killing of Kirk could likely inspire violent extremists who see it as “justification for further violence.”
“The high-profile nature of this assassination will likely be amplified in propaganda messaging and heavily exploited by malicious actors as well as adversarial nation-states in mis/dis/mal-information aimed at fomenting division,” the document said.
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