Joy Behar wonders if Trump DOJ seeking death penalty for Luigi Mangione will cause 'backlash' against GOP

"He's very popular, this guy, there could be a backlash," she said. "All I'm saying is, politically, it could be a backlash against Republicans to give him the death penalty."

"After careful consideration, I have directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in this case as we carry out President Trump's agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again," the statement continued.

Co-host Sunny Hostin suggested that Bondi's efforts were "an assault on the process." 

"It just seems like the attorney general is acting, really, against our institutional standards, which is what this administration is doing," Hostin added.

Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin said she believed in the death penalty, but questioned the administration's push to apply it in this case.

"I was a little surprised this is where the Trump Justice Department started," she said, wondering if they should have focused on a drug cartel member or human trafficking cases. 

"I personally believe in the death penalty in the most extreme cases, terrorism, mass murder, with the most extensive appeals process in place so that mistakes are not made," Griffin continued, adding, "I personally, I think Luigi Mangione, if convicted, should spend his life in jail. I do not see him as a candidate for the death penalty. He's a first-time offender. He is young, and he is somebody prison systems are meant to rehabilitate and to punish."

Co-host Sara Haines said serving time in a federal maximum security prison would be a greater punishment.

"I tend to think the greater punishment in what he did is to stay alive and live with that. I'm a big believer in people having to live with themselves and the choices they've made, and their surrounding neighbors in places like that," she said.

Fox News' Lindsay Kornick contributed to this report.