House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) voiced concerns that video of a firing-squad execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, the former Army major sentenced to death for killing 13 at Fort Hood in Texas, could become “a recruiting tool for future terrorists.”
“We’ve got to think through the policy implications of all that,” Johnson told CBS News.
“I wouldn’t be watching it if it was aired,” Johnson said in the interview, which was published Monday.
He added that he needs to tell the White House “what some of my colleagues think about that, and not everybody’s in favor of the idea.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said the execution will be live-streamed for the public to watch — a move that President Donald Trump has said he supports. It would be the first time the U.S. military broadcasts an execution live on the internet. The execution is scheduled for Dec. 3.
Hegseth’s announcement has drawn condemnation from Democrats and some Republicans, including Reps. Austin Scott (Georgia), Tom Barrett (Michigan) and Rob Bresnahan (Pennsylvania), who have called on Hegseth to reconsider.
On Friday, Vice President JD Vance said he would not watch the planned live-streamed execution and expressed skepticism about whether it will be broadcast.
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