Speaker Johnson Hits Plan to Livestream Fort Hood Killer’s Execution: ‘Recruiting Tool for Future Terrorists’

House Speaker Mike Johnson warned the Trump administration that livestreaming the execution of Fort Hood mass killer Nidal Hasan could hand extremists a “recruiting tool for future terrorists,” becoming the latest Republican to voice concerns about the Pentagon’s plan.

Johnson made the warning after CBS News national correspondent Robert Costa asked whether he supported Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s proposal to broadcast Hasan’s December 3 execution by firing squad, a decision President Donald Trump said over the weekend that he will personally make.

Costa noted that Vice President JD Vance had said he would “not watch it.”

“There are colleagues who have concerns,” Johnson said, acknowledging he had not spoken to Trump, Vance, or Hegseth about it yet. “The concern would be that you would create a video that [it] wouldn’t be a recruiting tool for future terrorists. You know, we got to think through the policy implications of all that.”

“You know, we got to think through the policy implications of all that. I wouldn’t be watching it if it was aired,” he continued, adding: “But there’s a lot of opinions on that. I think there’s still some time to talk about that and my role as the leader of the legislative branch is to share my opinion – and that’s outside of my lane, of course – but I need to tell the White House what some of my colleagues think about that and that not everybody is in favor of the idea.”

The warning adds to growing bipartisan opposition after Hegseth announced last week that Hasan’s execution would be made public.

“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public,” Hegseth told reporters. The Pentagon subsequently confirmed plans for a livestream.

Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, was sentenced to death in 2013 after being convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others during his 2009 rampage at Fort Hood in Texas. His execution would be the first carried out by the U.S. military since 1961.

Watch above via CBS News.

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!