The View started its Tuesday morning episode by discussing the case of Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old who has been arrested and charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Mangione, who is facing charges including second-degree murder, second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, possession of a forged document, and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with both a bachelor’s and master’s degree. He had been working as an engineer.
During the show, Whoopi Goldberg pointed out that many people were taken aback by the revelation of Mangione as the suspect. She asked her co-hosts if they too were surprised by the identity of the accused individual.
Alyssa Farah Griffin said the reveal was a reminder that perpetrators “don’t fit into one box,” while Joy Behar took the opportunity to call out Sen. Ted Cruz for his comments about “leftism” being “a mental disease” after Mangione’s arrest, referring to the suspect’s alleged “anti-capitalist” views.
As for Sunny Hostin, she admitted that it’s still unclear to everyone why Mangione allegedly shot Thompson.
“It’s all speculation now as to why someone so young, so promising, would do something like this,” Hostin began. “There’s some indication that he was also suffering from chronic back pain, severe chronic back pain.”
According to a New York Times report, friends of Mangione said he “lived with significant, sometimes debilitating back pain” and has surgery for his condition last year.
But Behar was not buying Mangione’s back pain as an alleged motive in the shooting.
“Oh, who hasn’t? Everyone has back pain!” she said with a dismissive wave of her hand.
Hostin didn’t engage, but did maintain that the motive remains unclear. She told her co-hosts, “We’re not sure, we’re not sure why this happened.”
The View airs weekdays at 11/10c on ABC.
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