After Pete Hegseth and the Pentagon revealed their intentions to publicly execute Nidal Malik Hasan by firing squad and share it via livestream, President Donald Trump said he hasn’t made up his mind just yet — but he understands the military’s reasoning.
“He’s a vicious killer, killed 13 people in cold blood; wounded over 20. Some of those people will never have their lives back, in a true sense,” the president told reporters on Saturday of the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood. “He was vicious, he was violent.”
“There are two thoughts: Don’t show it and show it — because, you know, by showing it, maybe other people won’t be doing what he did,” he continued. “So I’ll make a decision ultimately. I know what the military would like to do, but we’ll make a decision.”
On Thursday, the Secretary of Defense announced that Hasan is set to be executed on Dec. 3. “He’s going to get a firing squad of soldiers, as it should be,” Hegseth said. “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.”
Then on Friday, FCC chairman Brendan Carr explained that since the plan is to livestream the execution, his commission wouldn’t technically be involved. “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 CNBC. “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 added.
Following the initial news, public figures such as Stephanie Ruhle, Henry Winkler, Joyce Carol Oates and Alyssa Farah Griffin decried the decision, with the “View” co-host noting it would be “bad for the human soul to tune in to watch.”
Either way, this would be the first military execution in more than 60 years.
