Hillary Clinton branded the public livestream of Fort Hood terrorist Nidal Hasan's firing-squad execution a "barbaric idea," even as the jihadist finally faces justice for murdering 13 American soldiers.
The former secretary of state took to X after Pentagon officials announced that the military execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, set for Dec. 3, would be broadcast live. She shared a photo of a New York Times report on the plan and delivered a blunt verdict.
Breitbart reported her post framed the livestream as an affront to American standards.
"A barbaric idea, beneath our dignity as a country,"
Clinton added a direct call to action: "Push back on this."
Her criticism landed after years of waiting for the man who opened fire on unarmed U.S. soldiers at Fort Hood. Hasan killed 13 people and wounded 32 others on November 5, 2009. A jury found him guilty on all charges of murder and attempted murder in August 2013.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced the method of execution on October 5. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth recommended death by U.S. Army firing squad. President Donald Trump approved it.
Parnell laid out the case in plain terms on X.
"Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has recommended, and President Donald J. Trump has approved, death by U.S. Army firing squad for convicted terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan, the jihadist who opened fire on unarmed American soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009,"
He continued with the body count and the words Hasan shouted during the attack.
"He killed 13 people and wounded 32 others while shouting 'Allahu Akbar' during the attack."
The Pentagon statement, carried in the New York Times piece Clinton shared, confirmed the Dec. 3 date and the livestream plan. The paper noted that releasing video of executions is most often associated with extremist groups such as the Islamic State, and that such a broadcast has little precedent in American practice.
Clinton has stayed active in Democratic politics, from an Omaha rally push for party candidates to other high-profile appearances. Her latest post put the focus on the optics of the execution rather than the soldiers Hasan gunned down.
Hasan was a former United States Army major. He turned his weapon on fellow service members at Fort Hood, the Texas base that became the site of one of the deadliest attacks on U.S. soil by a service member. The 2013 verdict covered every murder and attempted murder charge brought against him.
More than sixteen years separate the shooting from the scheduled execution. Families of the dead and the wounded have lived with that delay. The Trump administration moved to carry out the sentence by firing squad and to make the proceeding public through a livestream.
Clinton's objection did not center on the guilt finding or the death sentence itself. She targeted the decision to stream it. In her telling, the broadcast falls beneath the country's dignity. She urged followers to resist it.
That stance fits a longer pattern of public commentary from the former secretary, including moments when she warned Democrats about GOP messaging and party readiness. Here the message was simpler: stop the livestream.
American military justice reached a verdict in 2013. The remaining question was when and how the sentence would be carried out. Hegseth's recommendation and Trump's approval answered both. Death by firing squad. A public livestream on Dec. 3.
Clinton answered with moral language aimed at the method of display. She did not revisit Hasan's choice to murder unarmed soldiers while invoking a religious battle cry. She did not dwell on the 13 dead or the 32 wounded. The "barbaric idea," in her post, was the decision to let the public see the sentence enforced.
Her record of progressive fundraising and voter outreach, including a karaoke fundraiser for progressive groups, shows continued engagement on the left. This episode put that voice against a hard line on a convicted terrorist.
Parnell's announcement treated Hasan as what the court already found him to be: a convicted terrorist and jihadist who attacked his own side. The Pentagon described a military execution, not a secret one. The livestream makes the accountability visible.
Trump has spoken before about restraint toward political rivals, including comments that he held back from targeting Clinton out of respect for the office. On Hasan, the administration drew a different line: approve the firing squad and proceed.
Clinton cast the livestream as beneath national dignity. The soldiers Hasan killed had dignity too. So did the wounded. So do the families who watched the case move from the 2009 rampage to the 2013 convictions and then through long years of appeals and delay.
The New York Times account flagged the rarity of execution video in U.S. practice and the ugly company such footage keeps when terrorists release it. That comparison is real. It does not erase what Hasan did inside Fort Hood or the lawful sentence that followed.
Clinton has also scolded progressives inside her own party in other recent comments. On this issue she chose to scold the government's plan to show the public the end of a terrorist's case.
The core facts remain straightforward. Hasan murdered 13 people at Fort Hood. He wounded 32 more. He shouted "Allahu Akbar" while he did it. A jury convicted him on every murder and attempted murder count. The president approved death by Army firing squad. The Pentagon set Dec. 3 and said the execution would stream live. Clinton called that broadcast barbaric and told people to push back.
Justice for mass murder of American soldiers is not the barbarism. Pretending the country loses dignity by enforcing a lawful death sentence on a jihadist is the inversion that should trouble anyone who still remembers Fort Hood.
