The government was actually going to stream this. President Donald Trump said Thursday that the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan will not be livestreamed, killing a Pentagon plan that lasted about a week.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the livestream last week, saying the public should be able to watch Hasan die on December 3 at Fort Hood, Texas. Trump says he was not part of that call. In his post announcing the reversal, he said streaming might have worked as a deterrent, but a lot of people would rather not watch a man die on a screen.
“He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed.”
President Donald Trump
The pushback came from everywhere, including inside his own party. Vice President JD Vance said he would not watch. House Speaker Mike Johnson raised concerns, religious leaders objected, and victims families spoke against turning the execution into a spectacle. A poll released Thursday put the public against the stream too, at 80 percent.
What has not changed is the execution itself. Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in 2009, is still set to die by firing squad on December 3. The victims immediate families can attend in person if they choose. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Hegseth and Trump spoke before the announcement and are aligned.
If it happens on schedule, it will be the first U.S. military execution since 1961. It just will not be on a livestream.
See also: The Pentagon Is Going to Livestream the Firing Squad Execution of the Fort Hood Shooter | Vance Is Already Walking Back the Pentagon Plan to Livestream a Firing Squad Execution