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US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plan to livestream the execution of Nidal Hasan, convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others at Fort Hood in 2009, has drawn criticism from politicians across the political spectrum.
Hegseth said Thursday that Hasan would be executed by firing squad on Dec. 3 at the Texas army base where the shootings took place. The Pentagon announced Monday that President Donald Trump had approved the recommendation.
Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, was convicted in 2013 of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder. He has been held at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina said Hasan should face the death penalty but condemned the proposal to make the execution public and stream it. He wrote on the social media platform “X” that public executions were associated with oppressive governments and should not take place in the United States.
Joe Kent, who resigned in March as director of the Trump administration’s National Counterterrorism Center over the Iran war, warned that broadcasting the execution could benefit extremist groups. He said they could use footage as propaganda to radicalise and recruit others.
Democrats also objected to the plan, arguing that a public execution would turn punishment into a spectacle rather than uphold the rule of law. Representative Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said it would make “a mockery of our legal system.”
Senator Patty Murray urged the Pentagon to drop the proposal, saying the United States could pursue justice without glorifying violence or turning the execution into a public spectacle.
Senator Ruben Gallego said the government and victims could obtain justice without creating “a snuff film.”
