FCC chairman Brendan Carr dodged questions about the Pentagon’s plans to livestream a public execution in December, instead deferring to Pete Hegseth during a Friday interview on CNBC.
“My understanding is it’s not on broadcast TV, so I don’t think there’s a role for the FCC one way or the other there,” he told “Squawk on the Street.” “But I trust Secretary Hegseth. I mean, he’s implementing the laws and the regulations that are, you know, relevant to the Department of War, and I think he’s doing a great job. And I trust that he’s making the right call on these issues.”
“Ultimately, we’re going to defer to Secretary Hegseth and, you know, his decisions on how to move forward with this,” Carr again answered when asked if an execution even could be allowed to air on television.
On Thursday, the Secretary of Defense announced that the Pentagon would livestream Nidal Malik Hasan’s firing-squad execution on Dec. 3. He was previously convicted of killing 13 soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009.
“He’s going to get a firing squad of soldiers, as it should be,” Hegseth shared with Jack Posobiec on Real America’s Voice. “We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public — because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things.”
This would be the first military execution in more than 60 years.
Following the initial news, public figures such as Stephanie Ruhle, Henry Winkler, Joyce Carol Oates and Alyssa Farah Griffin have decried the decision, with the “View” co-host noting it would be “bad for the human soul to tune in to watch.”
