Vance says he won’t watch and doubts the Pentagon will livestream Nidal Hasan’s execution. Bipartisan backlash is growing.
Vice President JD Vance said Friday he does not know whether the Pentagon will go ahead with its plan to livestream the Dec. 3 firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan, and that he would not watch if it does. His comments are the first sign of unease from a top Trump official.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday that the execution would be livestreamed for the public. It would be the first time the U.S. military broadcasts an execution live online, and death penalty experts say it would be the first known broadcast of a lawful execution. Vance told reporters in Cincinnati, “I don’t know that that’s actually going to happen,” while calling Hasan’s attack the worst terrorist attack on American soil outside 9/11.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr told CNBC he understood the execution would not air on broadcast television but said he would defer to Hegseth on how to proceed. A media-law expert said the FCC has no legal basis to dictate whether broadcasters carry it. ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox did not immediately say whether they were considering airing it, Reuters reported.
The plan has drawn bipartisan criticism. Former U.S. officials said a livestream would hand terrorists a recruiting tool, and a top U.S. Catholic bishop called it “barbaric,” Reuters reported. President Donald Trump has not weighed in, USA Today reported.
Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, was convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009. It would be the first U.S. military execution since 1961, when Pvt. John Bennett was hanged, and Hegseth said the first by firing squad since World War II. Army guidelines say no one under 18 may witness an execution, and it is unclear how that applies to an online broadcast, MS NOW reported.
This report is based on information from Reuters, The Washington Post, CNN, USA Today and MS NOW.