Sean Spicer Comes Out Swinging Against Trump Admin Plan for Public Execution: Not ‘Good Precedent to Set’

Sean Spicer is not a fan of the Pentagon’s plan to livestream the first firing squad execution since World War II, warning it sets a bad “precedent.”

On The Huddle podcast, Spicer and Dan Turrentine both criticized the plan, but acknowledged they’ll be “surprised” if it actually happens.

The Pentagon announced that Nidal Malik Hasan’s execution will be livestreamed, plans that led to bipartisan backlash. Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, killed 13 people in a mass shooting at the Fort Hood post in Killeen, Texas in 2009. He was sentenced to death in 2013.

Spicer, a former White House press secretary during President Donald Trump’s first term, said he has no interest in watching someone die, while acknowledging Hasan’s “horrific” crimes.

The Republican argued livestreaming the execution could lead to children accessing it and to other governments using it as a precedent to livestream their own executions.

“I just don’t think it’s a good precedent to set, to livestream something that kids could access, that people could use as justification to say, well, the U.S. did it. Again, our criminal justice system in this case, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, is very different from other countries. But I would never want the justification of ‘Watch what the U.S. did, we’re gonna do it,'” Spicer said.

The other problem, he argued, is that livestreaming the event could help the murderer in becoming a “martyr,” which he noted is the goal of most terrorists.

“This guy was a dirtball and what he did was abhorrent and the last thing we should do is give him any kind of recognition so I think put him to death, don’t say anything about it, make sure the victims know that they have received [justice] to the extent of justice that can be achieved on Earth,” Spicer said.

Watch above via The Huddle.

Jason Cohen contributed to this report.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!