President Trump’s midterm rally tour through the reddest of red states — Alabama, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas — continued Saturday afternoon with a stop in Tennessee. Mr. Trump spoke in the charming, colonial town of Clarksville, a few miles from the Kentucky border.
The people who turned up to see him all seemed to have heard that the Trump administration planned to hold the first legally sanctioned public execution in this country since 1936.
On Dec. 3, a firing squad is scheduled to execute Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist who gunned down 13 of his fellow soldiers, and injured 32 others, while shouting “Allahu akbar,” at Fort Hood in Texas in 2009. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced this week that Mr. Hasan’s execution would be livestreamed. More than a few Republican lawmakers objected, and Vice President JD Vance said he wouldn’t watch it. The president said on Friday that he “absolutely” approved the plan, though he suggested to reporters on Saturday morning that he still had “a decision” to make on whether to “show it.”
Mr. Trump didn’t talk about any of this at his rally in Clarksville, despite holding forth for more than an hour.
Some people shifted uncomfortably in their seats when asked about it. A few said they loved the idea, while others said they wouldn’t watch. But in conversations with 10 people at the rally, no one said they opposed Mr. Trump’s and Mr. Hegseth’s plan.
“I’ll probably watch it on some livestream or something,” said Ron Pool, a 57-year-old man from Indian Mound, Tenn., who said he does not work because he is disabled.
“You don’t have to watch it unless you want to,” said Melanie Hohman, 53, a vice chair of the Wilson County Republican Party. She was there with her husband, Greg, and their 20-year-old son, Luke.
“It’s legal,” the son said with a shrug. (Mr. Hasan has exhausted his appeals through military courts, but experts say he could have a narrow chance through the civilian legal system.)
These conversations were by no means a representative survey of how Americans at large may feel about the return of public execution. But it was a look into how a sample of the president’s most passionate supporters feel about something that many other Republicans have publicly decried as unacceptable in the United States. “Beyond disgusting,” is how Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, put it.
“It’s awesome,” said Myra Ellis, a 63-year-old retired banker from Benton, Ill., who said she plans to watch the execution. “It’s the start of our country getting clean. Anybody that goes onto our military bases and kills our service members deserves to die.”
She was there with her sister, Melissa Reiger, 62, who said she would prefer not to watch. But, she added, “I think for those who want to watch it, hey, I don’t have a problem with that.”
“Maybe I will” watch it, said Paul Paretti, a 63-year-old mechanic. He said he worked at Disneyland in Anaheim for decades before moving to Clarksville.
“Violence isn’t necessarily my thing,” the mechanic added, “but I do think that it’s something that needs to happen in certain situations.”
Mr. Paretti was “really upset” by the botched attempt to execute Christa Pike, the Tennessee woman who lawyers said was discharged from the hospital after surviving what was meant to be a lethal injection. Ms. Pike was convicted of the 1995 torture and murder of a classmate in Knoxville.
Hers was the second failed attempt at lethal injection in the state this year, and it was on the minds of many Tennesseans at the rally. Senator Marsha Blackburn, a Republican who represents the state, spoke before the president arrived. Ms. Blackburn, who is the front-runner to become Tennessee’s next governor, has said that she wants to bring back the electric chair. At the rally, when she reiterated her support for the death penalty, a man in the crowd yelled out.
“Firing squad!!!”
The death penalty is one thing, still debated with passion but legal in 27 states. Livestreaming a public execution is another issue entirely. The Trump administration’s decision to do so will put the country in league with the Taliban, Iran, North Korea and Somalia. Reminded of this in Clarksville, some who said they supported the plan to livestream the execution grew by turns defensive and angry. Others, indifferent. They rejected the notion that by bringing back public spectacles of death, the country’s identity would somehow be changed.
“I wouldn’t compare us to any other country,” said Ms. Hohman, the Republican official from Wilson County. “I mean, we’re the greatest country on earth.”
“I mean, it’s not pleasant, but I think it’s necessary,” said Tracey Aliff, a 57-year-old baker who works at the grocery chain Publix. “I don’t know if I’ll watch it,” she added, “but I think people should have the right to watch it.”
Is it appropriate for children to watch?
“Well, my child is an adult,” she said, “but if I had small children, I don’t think I really would watch with them.”
“One hundred and fifty years ago, they used to hang people on the gallows, and the whole town would come out and look and watch,” said Tim Lincoln, a 68-year-old former member of the military who said he served multiple tours in Iraq. “You don’t think that had some kind of effect on crime?”
“We’re a Christian nation, and that means that we’re not going to let Satan get his way,” he said. Liz Lincoln, a 67-year-old former civil servant, nodded and began to recite scripture from memory: “For with the heart you believe unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation …”
Asked if they planned to watch the execution, she shook her head, and he said, “I’ve seen death. I don’t need to see people die.”
Emily Cochrane contributed reporting.
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