Trump backs Fort Hood shooter's firing squad execution as Pentagon plans livestream

The conviction and the execution date

Nidal Malik Hasan, a former US Army major and psychiatrist from Virginia, admitted to fatally shooting 13 unarmed soldiers in a crowded medical building at Fort Hood, Texas, on 5 November 2009. He said during his court-martial in 2013 that he believed he was protecting Muslims and the Taliban in Afghanistan from the US military. The attack also injured 32 others, and BBC describes it as the deadliest ever non-combat attack on an American military base. Hasan is held on death row at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas and is due to be executed by firing squad on 3 December. He is 56 years old and uses a wheelchair after an officer responding to the attack shot him.

Trump endorses the firing squad

Trump endorsed the execution by firing squad at a political event in Texas on Wednesday, saying that Hasan "deserves it." On Friday he told reporters he "absolutely" approves of the planned execution, and said Hasan "will be killed" by firing squad. Asked about the method, he told reporters:

I really don't care how he goes, as long as he goes.

On the livestream he was noncommittal, saying "they're making a determination about that," and he did not answer when asked whether he would watch. Trump's approval came days after a failed attempt to execute Christa Pike by lethal injection late last month, which pushed Tennessee's governor to halt further executions in that state this year.

The Pentagon's livestream plan

The Pentagon confirmed on Thursday that it plans to livestream the execution. BBC reports that if it goes ahead as planned, it would be the first broadcast of a US execution. In a video shared by the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said:

We'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public, because people need to understand that there's serious consequence for these types of things.

On CNBC on Friday, FCC chair Brendan Carr said he had not seen any indication the execution is scheduled for broadcast, adding:

My understanding is it's not on broadcast TV, so I don't think there's a role for the FCC one way or the other.

Under US Army Regulation 190-55, which governs military executions, only certain categories of people, such as journalists and relatives, are permitted to be present, and people under 18 are excluded.

Backlash from both parties

The plan has drawn criticism from within Trump's Republican Party and from Democrats. Republican Representative Austin Scott of Georgia said:

I absolutely support the sentence of death, but livestreaming executions is what jihadists do. America is better than that.

Vice President JD Vance, who cast doubt on whether the Pentagon will livestream the execution, told reporters:

I don't know that that's actually going to happen.

Vance is a convert to the Catholic Church, which has long opposed capital punishment, and he said that if it is livestreamed, "I'm not going to be watching it." Earlier on Friday, US Conference of Catholic Bishops president Archbishop Paul S. Coakley said in a statement:

It is with shock and great sorrow that I have learned of the Department of War's decision to publicly livestream the execution.

He called the decision "a barbaric promotion of a culture of death" that "must be reconsidered."

Hasan's lawyer and open questions

John Galligan, a civilian lawyer advising Hasan, said he was the first person to inform Hasan of the date of his sentence, after seeing a social media post about it from the Pentagon's chief spokesman this week. Galligan told BBC the event is being treated like a "carnival" and is the "closest thing to a lynch mob mentality that we used to see in the olden days." BBC reports it remains unclear whether any restrictions would be implemented on a livestream to limit who can watch the execution. Rules on how executions are carried out and who can watch vary by state, and the military has its own rules. Critics say it will be hard, if not impossible, to prevent children from watching it.