Dan Mitchinson: US correspondent on the US Justice Department seeking the death penalty for Luigi Mangione

The US Justice Department is seeking the death penalty if Luigi Mangione is found guilty.

Mangione is on federal charges for allegedly shooting United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson dead in Manhattan last December.

US correspondent Dan Mitchinson says Mangione has pleaded not guilty so far - but discussions are ongoing.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
International Correspondence with ins and Eye Insurance Peace of Mind
for New Zealand Business Day Midsin's at US correspondent Dan
good afternoon to you.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Hey, good afternoon.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Right, So Liberation Day is NIA. Has anything been leaked
or anything been supplied by the White House as to
what might happen.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
No, he's going to give a he being the President,
we'll be talking about this tomorrow afternoon Eastern time. And
simply put, we're expecting him to say. You know what
we've heard him say for weeks and weeks now. He
wants us to buy more goods made in the USA.
He wants to make it more expensive for companies from
overseas or across the boarder to ship things over here. So,

(00:40):
starting tomorrow is going to target countries the charge fees
on US imports. And we'll call it what it is.
I mean, this is a tax. It's a tax. It's
not going to be absorbed by retailers or mom and
pop businesses. It's going to be added on to what
we all pay when we buy a car or anything
that's imported.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Yeah, we're going to look at this after five on
the program people to get a sense of what it
might mean here in New Zealand, but in the States,
the US prosecutor is the case of Luigi Mangioni. This
is the guy accused of assassinating the health insurance boss
that going after the death penalty they are.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Attorney General Pambondi today said that they're going to seek
the death penalty for him. And this is if he
is convicted on the capital murdered charges. And basically this
goes back to the December shooting of the CEO United
Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan. So Mangioni is pleaded
not guilty to the state charges. He was charged in

(01:37):
a federal criminal complaint. He has not been indicted on
those charges or entered a pleay. And really, I mean
this is not unexpected. The Trump administration had said that
they were going to try to go after the death
penalty for any cases where it is is it applicable,
And I think this is the first real high profile
one that we've seen since Donald Trump came into office

(01:59):
back in January.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Now, this guy who got up and did the twenty
five hour space on the Senate floor is over now,
so he lasted twenty for US, but so can you
just confirm for us he didn't take break, didn't go
to the toilet, and stood up the whole.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Time, basically, And let's face it, that's the question that
everybody in the newsroom and everybody wants to listen is
how can this guy hold it for twenty four hours? Right? Well,
now here's the thing. He had too small. He didn't
need anything, by the way, he had two small glasses
of water that he sipped near him. He was allowed,
or did allow other Democrats to give short speeches, and

(02:33):
they could ask questions to give him a rest from speaking,
and he could lean up against things, but he could
not leave the chamber, and as long as he didn't
leave the chamber, no other senator could force him to stop.
So he just went on and on and on, and yeah,
he set a new record. I think it was close
to twenty four hours and eighteen minutes something like that.
And I got to tell you, the remarks were going viral.

(02:54):
There was a speech of him on TikTok earlier. It
had something like two hundred or two hundred and twenty
million likes, and people were posting fan edits of this thing.
Will this really change anything? I mean, he was going
after Donald Trump and the Trump administration. No, does it
make for good sound bites in the evening news and
on the radio. Absolutely does so. I mean good for
him to be able to do this.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
Yeah, I guess, well, I guess so. It doesn't matter
what your politics are. I think just the fact that
you can stand up for that long litt alone, not
pe for that long, and keep talking for that long
is kind of kind of impressive. Dan. Thank you very much,
Dan Mitchison, US correspondent. For more from Hither Duplessy, Allen Drive,
listen live to news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays,

(03:37):
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