Donald Trump has shelved a widely condemned plan to livestream the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, who was convicted of killing ۱۳ people at a military base at Fort Hood in Texas in ۲۰۰۹.
In a social media post on Thursday, Trump argued that broadcasting such an execution “might have been a strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with Terrorists and SCUM like Hasan” but said that “many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die, through streaming, or through any other visual device”.
“He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed,” Trump added. “That said, the execution may be viewed in person by the immediate families of the victims, if they so choose.”
Hasan, who was left paralyzed from the waist down after being shot by law enforcement officers during the shooting at Fort Hood, now uses a wheelchair.
The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said last week that the execution of Hasan would be a public event. Hasan’s sentence will be the first military execution in more than ۶۰ years, and would have been the first in US history to be publicly broadcast.
In a statement to the Guardian on Thursday, a spokesperson for the Pentagon said Trump and Hegseth “spoke about the decision to not livestream Hasan’s execution” before Trump’s statement. Hegesth “supports the President’s decision, and they are completely aligned”, they added.
In an interview with Real America’s Voice last Thursday, Hegseth said he supported the public execution “because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things”.
But since then, the Trump administration has faced sweeping criticism, and comparisons to dictatorships in Iran and Afghanistan. Many US lawmakers, from across the political spectrum, have come out and condemned the announcement, and urged Hegseth to reconsider.
Yassamin Ansari, the first Iranian American Democrat elected to the US Congress, wrote in a post on social media: “In Trump’s America, we’re doing public executions now. WTF. This is what happens under brutal dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan. It’s all part of Trump’s authoritarian takeover of the United States.”
In another post, Lisa Murkowski, a Republican senator from Alaska, said that there was “no need to livestream any execution, including this one”, adding that she “would expect this from terrorists and dictators, but not here in America”.
The representative Rob Bresnahan, a Republican from Pennsylvania, said in a post on social media that “an execution shouldn’t be a live-streamed spectacle”, adding that “the focus should be on justice for the victims and their families, not turning an execution into entertainment”.
“Their pain deserves respect, not a public show,” he said.
On Friday of last week, the United Nations’ office of the high commissioner for human rights warned that broadcasting the killing would amount to a public execution and “breach the absolute prohibition of torture”, and the president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops also condemned the Pentagon’s plan, saying in a statement that “in no way can Hassan’s actions be condoned but this decision is a barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered”.
“The public execution even of one who has done grave harm will only further undermine the moral fabric of our nation and be a blight on the conscience of its people,” the statement added.
That same day, JD Vance appeared to cast doubt on whether the Pentagon would actually livestream the execution, telling reporters that “I don’t know that that’s actually going to happen” when asked about the plans. The vice-president also said that if it were livestreamed, “I’m not going to be watching it.”
But over the weekend, Markwayne Mullin, who heads the Department of Homeland Security, stood behind the administration’s decision to livestream the execution.
Speaking with CBS News, Mullin said that “no one has to watch it” and said: “I follow President Trump. He’s the commander in chief of the country, and he does a phenomenal job. He leads this country with a very, very, very direct, forward, straight hand, and he’s restoring American values.”
Trump himself had made contrasting remarks in recent days on whether the live stream would happen. On Friday, he told reporters that he “absolutely” approved the plan to livestream the execution, but on Saturday he said that he had not yet made a final decision on whether to go through with it.
“There are two thoughts: don’t show it and show it” he said. “’Cause you know, by showing it, maybe other people won’t be doing what he did. So I’ll make a decision ultimately. I know what the military would like to do, but I’ll make a decision.”
