‘Barbaric spectacle’ or ‘no-brainer’? Lawmakers split over livestreaming an execution

By Mike Glenn - The Washington Times - Friday, October 9, 2026

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s decision to livestream the firing squad execution of convicted Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan has drawn sharp criticism from international observers and lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Some call the livestreamed execution a cruel punishment. Others say it would give the admitted Islamic jihadist the public attention he craves and amplify his anti-American message.

Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the planned public execution a “barbaric spectacle.”

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“The Trump administration should reconsider this abhorrent move, which only gives the shooter what he wants: more attention and more control,” he said. “This is a gift to anti-American terrorist recruiters. It is absolutely shameful and damaging to America’s interests and core values.”

Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, was convicted of carrying out a Nov. 5, 2009, mass shooting at the Soldier Readiness Processing Center on the sprawling central Texas military post. He killed 13 people and wounded more than 30.

Mr. Hegseth called the decision to execute Hasan a “no-brainer.” He said making the execution public sends an important message about the punishment for military treason and terrorism.

“An Army major betrays his country [as a] radical Islamist, killing a bunch of Americans at Fort Hood; of course we’re going to do it at Fort Hood,” Mr. Hegseth told news outlet Human Events. “We’re going to do it at 1 p.m., which is when he did it. It’s going to be soldiers with rifles executing the firing squad” mission.

Vice President J.D. Vance said he wouldn’t watch it.

“I don’t know that that’s actually going to happen,” he told reporters Friday. “What I try to remind people is, look, this is a guy who committed, in my view, the worst terrorist attack on American soil outside of 9/11.”

Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the senior Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, called the idea of livestreaming Hasan’s execution “disturbing” and said it would make a mockery of the U.S. legal system.

“There is a reason why we treat the meting out of justice with the seriousness it demands,” he said. “We are a democratic country and should take the rule of law seriously, not turn it into a spectacle.”

The livestreamed firing squad also found supporters in Congress.

Rep. Nancy Mace, a Citadel military college graduate and daughter of a career Army officer, had no qualms with a public execution of a man who murdered 13 people, 12 of them U.S. soldiers, while shouting “Allahu Akbar.”

“He has had 16 years of appeals that his victims never got. On Dec. 3, justice comes for him in the same place he spilled their blood,” the South Carolina Republican said. “If the Pentagon wants the world to watch, let every terrorist on earth see what happens when you kill American soldiers.”

“I stand with Secretary Hegseth and the families of the fallen,” Ms. Mace said.

Also supporting the Pentagon’s decision to livestream the execution is Rev. Robert Jeffress, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas.

“Capital punishment is commanded by God in Genesis 9:6 to remind people of the sanctity of human life,” he said. “The more people that can see that illustrated through a public execution, the better.”

Sen. Thom Tillis, North Carolina Republican, agreed that Hasan should face the death penalty, but said livestreaming the firing squad would be “beyond disgusting.”

“Public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do. It should not be happening in America,” Sen. Tillis said.

Army Pvt. Eddie Slovik was the last U.S. service member to be executed by a firing squad. He was shot in France in January 1945 after being court-martialed and convicted of desertion during World War II.

Former Army Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford was shot several times during Hasan’s attack but questioned the decision to livestream his execution.

“To show the whole thing without being censored for the public, for me personally, I don’t agree with that,” he told the BBC. “It’s not something you should view for entertainment purposes.”

A small number of countries like Iran, Afghanistan, and North Korea still stage public executions. Analysts say they are typically carried out for political intimidation or state displays of power.

“Are those the countries that we want to be in the company of?” said Andy Stumpf, a retired Navy SEAL, author, and podcaster. “The man should die, for sure, but is there a benefit to allowing him to die as the martyr he wants to be?”

A statement from the office of U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said the livestreamed execution would “breach the absolute prohibition of torture.”

“Failure to respect this prohibition would inevitably render the execution arbitrary and result in a violation of the right to life,” it said.

The Death Penalty Information Center said the last public execution in the U.S. happened in the 1930s.

“We are not aware of any regulation or historical precedent for a military execution to be livestreamed on the internet or otherwise made widely available to the public,” said DPI executive director Robin M. Maher. “Public executions are typically held in authoritarian countries to instill fear in the population, and to show the power and control of the government.”