WASHINGTON — Opposition is mounting among Republican lawmakers, religious leaders and international observers to a Pentagon proposal to livestream the planned execution of former U.S. Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan, convicted of killing 13 people in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting in Texas.
President Donald Trump said Friday he has yet to decide whether the execution, scheduled for December 3, should be broadcast live. He said Hasan deserves the death penalty by firing squad but stopped short of endorsing the proposed livestream.
Vice President JD Vance also expressed doubts that the plan would proceed, telling reporters in Cincinnati that he did not know whether the livestream would actually happen. He added that he would not watch it if it were made public.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed the livestream proposal on Thursday, sparking criticism from members of both political parties.
Republicans raise concerns
Several Republican lawmakers have urged the administration to reconsider the plan, warning that broadcasting an execution could turn a solemn legal proceeding into public entertainment.
Senator John Curtis said a society risks losing its moral footing when executions become a form of entertainment. Senator Thom Tillis and Representative Austin Scott also criticized the proposal, while Representative Rob Bresnahan said the suffering of victims and their families deserves respect rather than a public spectacle.
Representative Michael Baumgartner likewise called for the plan to be reconsidered.
Democrats have also voiced widespread opposition.
A senior White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Trump was not opposed to the idea but could still change his position. The official said the administration has been hearing concerns from lawmakers, allies and religious leaders.
The United Nations human rights office also objected, saying public executions constitute cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Amnesty International criticized the use of a firing squad, while mental health experts warned that a public broadcast could be traumatic for children.
Joe Kent, who resigned earlier this year as head of the National Counterterrorism Center, argued that livestreaming the execution could provide extremist groups with propaganda to support recruitment and radicalization.
Vance, however, cautioned against allowing the controversy over the execution method to overshadow the victims of the 2009 attack.
“Whatever the controversy is about the method of the execution, I hope that people don't forget that this is a guy who brutally murdered a lot of innocent people,” he said.
Unprecedented military execution
Hasan, now 56, was convicted in a military trial for fatally shooting 13 people at Fort Hood, now known as Fort Cavazos, in November 2009. He was an Army psychiatrist at the time of the attack and said during his 2013 trial that he acted to stop what he described as a U.S. war on Islam.
He is believed to use a wheelchair after being shot by police during his arrest.
The planned execution would be highly unusual. Death penalty experts say no U.S. government execution has ever been publicly broadcast or livestreamed, and the U.S. military has not carried out an execution by firing squad since 1945.
U.S. law prohibits recording or broadcasting executions in the federal prison system, although military regulations have not imposed the same prohibition. Courts have previously rejected lawsuits by media organizations seeking broader public access to executions.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr said he understood the execution would not be shown on broadcast television, while deferring to the Pentagon on questions about whether networks could air it.
The Pentagon has not clarified whether relatives of the victims will be invited to attend, how the firing squad would be selected or what procedures would govern the execution. Officials said further details would be released later.
The debate comes amid renewed scrutiny of capital punishment following a botched lethal injection in Tennessee and ahead of the November 3 U.S. midterm elections, in which Republicans are fighting to retain control of Congress.
