President Trump says he will decide whether Nidal Hasan’s scheduled firing-squad execution is broadcast live, after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pushed the idea as a deterrent and critics blasted it as medieval.
President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Saturday that he has not locked in a final call on livestreaming the execution of Fort Hood mass killer Nidal Hasan, and that the choice rests with him.
Hasan, a former Army major and psychiatrist, is set to be put to death on December 3 at 1 p.m. for the November 2009 rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, that killed 13 people and wounded 20 others. He was convicted in 2013 on 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder.
Daily Mail reporting laid out the sequence: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday the execution would be shown live; Trump later said he will make the ultimate decision.
Hegseth made the case on Jack Posobiec’s podcast. He said the execution should be public “because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things.”
He also tied the method to an older wartime standard, saying he liked “the mentality we had in World War II, which was win. Which was understand when the enemy attacks you, you stand your ground.”
Trump had already signaled support earlier in the week. On Wednesday he endorsed the idea and said Hasan “deserves it.” On Friday he said the Pentagon was “making a determination,” that he “absolutely” authorized a livestream, and that Hasan would die by firing squad either way.
"There are two thoughts: don’t show it and show it. Cause you know, by showing it, maybe other people won’t be doing what he did. So I’ll make a decision ultimately. I know what the military would like to do, but I’ll make a decision,"
Trump said Saturday. He added that some of the wounded “will never have their lives back in a true sense,” and that he “really don’t care how he goes, as long as he goes,” calling the death penalty “a very worthy way of going for him.”
In November 2009, Hasan opened fire inside a medical processing center at Fort Hood. He killed 13 people, then followed soldiers out a back door before exchanging gunfire with police.
He told officers he targeted soldiers deploying to Afghanistan because they were “going to engage in an illegal war.” A military jury later convicted him and sentenced him to death. That sentence is now set for December 3 at 1 p.m.
Vice President JD Vance struck a more cautious note on the broadcast itself.
"I don’t know that that’s actually going to happen."
Vance also said that whatever the fight over the method, people should not forget “this is a guy who brutally murdered a lot of innocent people,” and indicated he would not tune in if a livestream went forward.
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy framed the proposal as copying terrorists.
"What is he mimicking? ISIS executions."
Murphy said he accepts that the country has the death penalty, but called public executions “medieval” and “one of the things that we abhor about terrorist groups.”
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina joined the criticism on X. He wrote that public executions are “what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do,” said “It should not be happening in America,” and called streaming the death “beyond disgusting.”
Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff went further against Hegseth, calling the defense secretary “a deeply unwell person who seems to relish this kind of brutality,” accusing him of staging an “obscene medieval spectacle” while “running a department that is falling into chaos,” and saying “The guy cannot run the military competently.”
The UN human rights office said broadcasting the killing “is tantamount to a public execution and would breach the absolute prohibition of torture.” Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, speaking as head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, called it a “barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered.”
The core dispute is straightforward. Hegseth and Trump have argued that showing the consequence might stop the next attacker. Critics say a live feed turns justice into a public show and puts America in the company of regimes it condemns.
Trump has left no doubt about the sentence itself. Hasan is scheduled to die by firing squad on December 3. What remains open is whether cameras will be allowed to carry it.
He said he knows what the military would prefer. He also said the final word is his.
A man who murdered 13 American soldiers over an “illegal war” claim is finally facing the sentence a jury gave him, and the country is arguing over whether the public should watch him pay it.
