The Pentagon Wants to Stream an Execution, but Even Trump’s Allies Are Hesitating

The Pentagon Wants to Stream an Execution, but Even Trump’s Allies Are Hesitating
The planned livestream of Nidal Malik Hasan’s execution has transformed a military punishment into a national argument over whether justice can be carried out without becoming public theater.

The Pentagon says Hasan’s Dec. 3 firing-squad execution at Fort Hood will be public and available to watch. Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in the 2009 attack, and supporters of the sentence argue that the brutality of his crimes should not be forgotten. Vice President JD Vance called it “the worst terrorist attack on American soil outside of 9/11” and said Hasan murdered soldiers “at their most vulnerable.”

But support for the death sentence has not translated into clear support for livestreaming it. President Trump endorsed the firing squad, saying, “I really don’t care how he goes, as long as he goes,” while leaving the broadcast question unresolved. Vance went further in separating the punishment from the spectacle: “If it’s ultimately livestreamed, I’m not going to be watching it.” He also suggested the plan might not proceed.

Religious leaders and human-rights critics reject both the execution and its proposed broadcast. Pope Leo XIV described capital punishment as “inadmissible,” while Cardinal Pietro Parolin called the livestream “truly incomprehensible” and “unacceptable to turn death into a spectacle.” Archbishop Paul Coakley likewise condemned the plan as a “barbaric promotion of a culture of death,” while stressing that Hasan’s crimes could not be condoned.

The dispute therefore is not simply over Hasan’s guilt or punishment. It is over whether the state can claim moral authority while displaying a killing—and whether even officials who defend execution are willing to watch it happen.