Rick Scott says Luigi Mangione should be executed

Florida’s senior Senator believes the man accused of killing of a health insurance CEO should be put to death, assuming he’s convicted of the crime.

“Well, if you look at what’s happened on television, I mean, he’s not been convicted yet, but it sure looks like (the murder) was just absolutely in cold blood, and he just had a vendetta against him,” Rick Scott said about Luigi Mangione, the 26 year old Marylander accused of killing United Health CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024.

“So at least that’s what you read, so if that’s what happened, I mean, you know, that’s clearly justified,” Scott said. “But violence is never justified.”

Among the federal charges against Mangione: first-degree murder; murder in furtherance of terrorism; criminal possession of a weapon; and stalking. Per Newsweek, Mangione has raised more than $228,000 for his legal defense, as the accused has become a cause celebre for at least some people who feel wronged by denial of health insurance claims and the industry writ large.

Scott added that “violence should never be tolerated,” saying Americans have “got to figure out how to bring people together and have a legitimate conversation.”

“If somebody doesn’t like the way the healthcare system is being delivered, then we get in the middle of it and change it. That’s the right way of doing it,” Scott said on Gabe Groisman’s podcast.

Before he entered politics, Scott was involved in health care himself, including with Columbia/HCA, America’s Health Network, and Solantic Corporation.

Mangione will be in federal court on Feb. 17 and in state court in New York on Feb. 21.