Pete Hegseth’s Execution Livestream Plan Sparks Avalanche of Bipartisan Fury: ‘Government-Backed Snuff Film’
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plan to livestream the firing-squad execution of the Fort Hood mass shooter triggered an extraordinary avalanche of condemnation spanning Republican lawmakers, conservative commentators, Democrats, and prominent figures across the media on Thursday.
The Pentagon confirmed yesterday that Nidal Hasan, the former Army major convicted of murdering 13 people and wounding more than 30 others at Fort Hood in 2009, is scheduled to be executed by firing squad on Dec. 3 and that the government intends to broadcast his death. If carried out, it would be the first U.S. military execution since 1961 and the first by military firing squad since 1945.
Hegseth had earlier made clear he wanted the execution opened to public viewing, telling Real America’s Voice: “We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public.” The Pentagon subsequently confirmed that meant a livestream.
The announcement prompted a remarkable backlash almost immediately, even from figures who explicitly stressed that they support the death penalty or believe Hasan deserves execution.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), for one, insisted that Hasan “should” be executed but compared the public nature of the move to “what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do.”
Reason editor Robby Soave went further, calling the proposal “completely deranged” and warning that broadcasting Hasan’s death would become “ISIS recruitment slop,” exactly the spectacle that the convicted terrorist would want.
Atlantic contributor Tom Nichols, who noted that he once supported capital punishment, said the issue went beyond the underlying debate over the death penalty.
Former Trump White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin, now a co-host on The View, called the decision “toxic for society”:
Christina Hoff Sommers offered a one-word verdict – “barbaric” – as did foreign policy columnist Josh Rogin:
Democrats, meanwhile, seized on the announcement as both a question of national dignity and as another flashpoint over the priorities of the Trump administration.
Pennsylvania State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, who serves as DNC vice chair, wrote: “Us: we want housing, food, and gas that we can afford! Trump and Republicans: how about we live stream an execution?”
Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) warned the Trump administration was “robbing our country of its dignity”:
Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) issued a lengthy denunciation of Hegseth’s plan, while making clear she believed Hasan should still be punished for his crimes.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), appearing on CNN, separately branded the livestream proposal “disgusting,” questioned whether Hegseth was “mimicking ISIS executions,” and described public execution as “medieval.”
The fury from other commentators and pundits was even more sweeping:
The announcement places the United States on course for an event without precedent in the modern era. The Pentagon’s proposed livestream would take that concept into an entirely new medium, allowing potentially millions of people to watch an execution carried out by the U.S. military in real time.
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