Vance Casts Doubt on Pentagon Plan to Livestream Fort Hood Shooter's Execution
Key Takeaways
- •Vice President JD Vance questioned whether the Pentagon's planned livestream of Nidal Malik Hasan's December execution will actually happen and said he would not watch it.
- •Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in a 2009 shooting spree at Fort Hood.
- •President Donald Trump approved Hasan's execution by firing squad and said the former Army psychiatrist deserves the death penalty.
- •Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, condemned the decision to livestream the execution as a barbaric promotion of a culture of death and called for it to be reconsidered.
- •The military has not executed a service member by firing squad since World War II, with the most recent military execution occurring in 1961 by hanging.
Vice President JD Vance cast doubt Friday on whether the Pentagon will actually livestream the December execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan, telling reporters that if the broadcast goes ahead, “I’m not going to be watching it.”
The vice president’s skepticism came a day after the Pentagon confirmed its plan to publicly execute Hasan. Asked about those plans, Vance said, “I don’t know that that’s actually going to happen.” He then sought set aside the controversy over the plans for a public execution, insisting that Hasan’s crimes should not be forgotten.
Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in a shooting spree at the military base in 2009.
“So whatever the controversy is about the method of the execution, I hope that people don’t forget that this is a guy who brutally murdered a lot of innocent people,” Vance said. “Now, that said, I mean, look, if it’s ultimately livestreamed, I’m not going to be watching it,” he added.
Vance is a convert to the Catholic Church, which has long opposed capital punishment. Earlier Friday morning, the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops condemned the U.S. government’s decision to livestream Hasan’s execution.
“It is with shock and great sorrow that I have learned of the Department of War’s decision to publicly livestream the execution,” Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the conference, said in a statement. He added that the decision was “a barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered.”
Earlier, President Donald Trump told a White House event that Hasan will be getting “the death penalty through firing squad. And he deserves it.” Trump, who approved Hasan’s execution, called him “a maniac.” The dueling statements highlight the tension surrounding the case: a president who approved the firing squad, and Catholic leaders pressing the government to reconsider its plan to broadcast the execution.
The president approved the method of execution by firing squad days after a failed attempt to execute Christa Pike by lethal injection late last month pushed Tennessee’s governor to halt further executions in that state this year.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said the military hasn’t executed a service member by firing squad since World War II. The last military execution took place on April 13, 1961, when Army Pvt. John Bennett was put to death by hanging.
Trump, a longtime vocal supporter of capital punishment, did not mention the Pentagon’s plan to livestream the execution so that the broader public can see it. With the execution set for December, it remains unclear whether the livestream will ultimately go ahead.
This story has been corrected to show the military base’s name is Fort Hood, not Ford Hood.
Associated Press writers Will Weissert in Washington and Holly Meyer in Nashville, Tennessee contributed to this report. This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.
