Fort Hood Execution: Trump Says It Won’t Be Livestreamed
The fort hood execution will not be livestreamed, President Donald Trump announced Thursday, reversing the Pentagon’s plan to broadcast the Dec. 3 firing-squad death of the 2009 mass shooter Nidal Hasan.
Trump said on social media that while airing the execution “might have been a strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with Terrorists and SCUM like Hasan,” too many well-meaning people would rather not watch him die through streaming or any other visual device. “He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed,” Trump wrote. He added that the immediate families of the victims would be allowed to view the execution in person, if they choose.
A Reversal After Republican Backlash
The decision overruled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who announced on Oct. 8 that the Pentagon intended to livestream Hasan’s execution, telling a conservative interviewer that “people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things.” CNN reported that Trump had not known Hegseth was going to make the announcement and had not initially been told that Hasan is paralyzed from the waist down.
The plan drew a bipartisan backlash within days. Vice President JD Vance said he would not watch the execution and doubted it would actually be livestreamed. House Speaker Mike Johnson said some of his colleagues “have concerns.” Seventy-two retired generals and admirals signed an open letter warning the broadcast would turn Hasan into a “martyr,” and the families of victims strongly opposed the idea, with one victim’s daughter calling it turning “tragedy into entertainment.”
Public opposition was also broad: an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll released Thursday found 80% of U.S. adults, including 64% of Republicans, said the execution should not be livestreamed.
December 3: The Execution Plan
Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, was convicted by a military court of killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 in the Nov. 5, 2009, attack at Fort Hood, Texas — the deadliest mass murder ever committed on a U.S. military installation. He was sentenced to death in 2013 and has been paralyzed since being shot by first responders during the attack.
The execution is scheduled for Dec. 3 at 1 p.m. Central time — the same time and weekday as the 2009 shooting. It would be the U.S. Army’s first execution of a former service member in 65 years; the last soldier put to death by firing squad was in 1945. The U.S. has not staged a public execution since the 1930s.
Source: Reuters / CNN