President Donald Trump on Saturday said he would decide whether to live-stream the execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan, two days after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said it would be publicly shown.
“There are two thoughts: don’t show it, and show it,” Trump said at the White House. “By showing it, maybe other people won’t be doing what he did. I’ll make a decision, ultimately.”
The Pentagon said Thursday that the execution by firing squad would be live-streamed for the public to watch. It would be the first time the U.S. military broadcasts an execution live on the internet. The execution is scheduled for Dec. 3.
Faith leaders, human rights advocates and other groups criticized the announcement. Hasan, a former U.S. Army psychiatrist, in 2009 shot dozens of people at the Soldier Readiness Processing Center in Fort Hood, Texas.
“In no way can Hasan’s actions be condoned but this decision is a barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered,” Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley, the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement.
Vice President JD Vance on Friday said that he would not personally watch the live stream and suggested that the execution might not be broadcast.
Trump earlier this week approved Hasan’s death by firing squad. It would be the first U.S. military execution since 1961, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.
The president on Friday appeared to say that he had approved Hasan’s live-streamed execution before suggesting Saturday he could change his mind.
“He was vicious, he was violent,” Trump said, adding that he was weighing different perspectives. “I know what the military would like to do.”
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