A day after the Pentagon announced it would livestream the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan, the plan is wobbling. JD Vance told reporters Friday he is not sure it will happen.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made the announcement Thursday on the conservative network “Real America’s Voice,” saying Hasan would face a firing squad at Fort Hood, Texas, on December 3 at 1 p.m. CT, with the public able to watch. “We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public, because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things,” he said. A Pentagon official later confirmed the livestream.
“I don’t know that that’s actually going to happen. If it’s ultimately livestreamed, I’m not going to be watching it.”
JD Vance, Friday
The backlash came from both parties. Republican Rep. Austin Scott wrote that “live-streaming executions is what jihadists do. America is better than that.” Senator Thom Tillis called the idea “beyond disgusting.” Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, who heads the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, called it “a barbaric promotion of a culture of death.” President Trump backed the firing squad Friday but would not commit to the livestream, saying “they’re making a determination.”
Hasan, a former Army major and psychiatrist, killed 13 people and wounded 32 in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting. He was sentenced to death in 2013, and Trump approved the execution earlier this month. It would be the first U.S. military execution since 1961, the first military firing squad since World War II, and the first public execution in America since 1936. Legal experts say a habeas petition from Hasan could still delay it for years.
December 3 is still the date. Whether anyone gets to watch is now an open question.
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