US Vice-President JD Vance has cast doubt on the Pentagon’s plans to livestream a firing squad execution of the Fort Hood shooter.
Talking with reporters, Vance expressed doubt that the December execution would go forward as planned, saying: “I don’t know that that’s actually going to happen”. He added, that “if it’s through live stream, I’m not going to be watching it”.
Hours later, US President Donald Trump said he “absolutely” approved the live stream plans but said the Pentagon was still “making a determination” on it.
Hasan killed 13 unarmed US soldiers at a base in Texas in 2009, injuring another 32. The firing squad execution would be the first military execution in more than 60 years.
The Pentagon announced earlier this week it would execute former US Army major Nidal Hasan on 3 December 2026 by firing squad in the attack on the Fort Hood base.
Then on Thursday US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the execution would be livestreamed for the public. “People need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things,” Hegseth explained.
Trump, as he left the White House on Friday, was asked about the possibility that visuals of Hasan’s execution could be used as propaganda for terrorists.
“He killed 13, 14 people, badly wounded 20-some-odd people, and he’s totally nuts,” Trump said. “So I really don’t care how he goes, as long as he goes, and I think that the death penalty is a very worthy way of going for him.”
The BBC has contacted the Pentagon for more information about the livestream determination.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Vance condemned Hasan’s attack on the base as “the worst terrorist attack on American soil outside of 9/11”. Asked about how his Catholic faith impacted his stance on plans to stream a public execution, Vance cast doubt on whether they would happen.
But he noted that Hasan, who was a US Army psychiatrist, was meant to treat soldiers for mental illness and other problems and “took them at their most vulnerable and gunned down these people where they lived”.
