The Pentagon‘s plan to livestream the execution of the man responsible for carrying out a mass shooting at Fort Hood, which killed 13 people and injured 32 others, has garnered scrutiny and criticism throughout Washington.
Maj. Nidal Hasan was an army psychiatrist working at Fort Hood in Texas when he opened fire inside a crowded medical center for soldiers returning from or about to be deployed overseas on Nov. 5, 2009. It was one of the deadliest mass shootings at a military base in the United States.
This week, President Donald Trump approved Hasan’s execution, which would make him the first person executed through the military justice system since a soldier was hanged in 1961, and the first to be killed by firing squad since 1945.
Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle made the formal determination that he would be killed via firing squad at Fort Hood at 1 p.m. on Dec., 3, 2026. Both the time and location are symbolic references to when and where Hasan carried out the mass shooting.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced on Thursday that the department will “make sure that people are able to watch it.” When asked for clarification, a department official told the Washington Examiner it will be livestreamed.
“It was a radical Islamist attack in uniform inside the ranks, and so he’s going to get a firing squad of soldiers as it should be,” Hegseth told conservative commentator Jack Posobiec. “We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things.”
When the Pentagon livestreams an event, it can be viewed on the department’s X account and on the Pentagon’s website. Army Regulation 190-55 dictates the department’s procedures for military executions, and it states in part, “No person under the age of 18 shall witness the execution.”
The plan to livestream the execution raises the question of whether that regulation is only meant for in-person viewership of the individual’s final moments or if it can be applied to the livestreams as well. X did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner‘s request for comment.
Brandan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, said in a CNBC interview that he does not believe it will be on broadcast television, so the FCC won’t have a role in determining whether it should be aired. When he was pressed on it, Carr said the FCC would “defer to Secretary Hegseth.”
The relevant Army regulations call for the individuals designated to carry out the execution to be kept confidential.
“I don’t think anybody doubts he’s guilty or, whatever you think about the death penalty, that it’s appropriate for the crimes,” Dr. Kori Schake, who previously worked in the Pentagon, State Department, and National Security Council, told the Washington Examiner.
“I think the decision to carry out an execution by firing squad is going to actually be bad for the American military, for the people carrying out the execution, and for how that will reverberate throughout the ranks,” Schake, who is now with the American Enterprise Institute, added. “I think the American military being asked to use deadly violence in a domestic context and in a law enforcement context, I think it’s likely to have reverberations, negative reverberations through the force. But the greatest outrage is the decision to livestream the execution.”
She also warned that livestreaming the execution, which is primarily done by terrorist or authoritarian regimes, “will suggest that we are no different, no more constrained by law or humanity than they are.”
There were at least 17 public executions in 2025, according to Amnesty International, which tracked 11 in Iran and six in Afghanistan.
In this court room sketch, Judge Col. Tara Osborn, top, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, right, and defense attorney, Lt. Col. Kris Poppe, left, are shown, Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2013, in Fort Hood, Texas. Hasan rested his case Wednesday without calling any witnesses or testifying in his own defense. Hasan is accused of killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 others at the Texas military base in November 2009. (AP Photo/Brigitte Woosley)
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In this courtroom sketch, Judge Col. Tara Osborn, top, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, right, and defense attorney, Lt. Col. Kris Poppe, left, are shown, Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2013, in Fort Hood, Texas. (AP Photo/Brigitte Woosley)
" data-large-file="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Nidal-sketch.jpg?w=696" src="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Nidal-sketch.jpg" alt="In this courtroom sketch, Judge Col. Tara Osborn, top, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, right, and defense attorney, Lt. Col. Kris Poppe, left, are shown" class="wp-image-4761432" srcset="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Nidal-sketch.jpg 700w, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Nidal-sketch.jpg?resize=300,219 300w, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Nidal-sketch.jpg?resize=150,109 150w, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Nidal-sketch.jpg?resize=696,507 696w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px">
In this courtroom sketch, Judge Col. Tara Osborn, top, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, right, and defense attorney, Lt. Col. Kris Poppe, left, are shown, Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2013, in Fort Hood, Texas. (AP Photo/Brigitte Woosley)
Schake tied the livestream execution to the “damage that the pictures of detainee treatment at Abu Ghraib” did to America’s image abroad and said it would “have a similar level of damage to America’s reputation and to the reputation of our military.”
There’s also the possibility that U.S. adversaries will use the livestreamed execution for their own propaganda.
“Broadcasting Hasan’s execution would give jihadist propagandists ready-made material,” Lucas Webber, the co-founder of Militant Wire publication, told the Washington Examiner. “He has used a wheelchair since police shot him during the 2009 Fort Hood attack, so footage of a paralyzed man being strapped down and killed by the state could be clipped, set to nasheeds, and captioned as a disabled Muslim slain by the crusader state.”
He warned that such clips would “spread online faster than takedowns could contain them, and could be recycled for years as a martyrdom narrative, a recruitment hook, and a justification for retaliation. Whatever the case for the sentence itself, a livestream adds little beyond the punishment while handing adversaries a durable shareable asset.”
Surviving victims and family members react:
The victims of Hasan’s shooting and the family members of those who lost their lives will have the opportunity to watch the execution in person.
Alonzo Lunsford, a former U.S. Army sergeant whom Hasan shot seven times, intends to attend.
“I’m gonna be there and before they pull the trigger, I want him to look at me in my eyes and I look at him in his eyes and I want him to know: ‘Dude you failed, I’m still here,'” Lunsford told BBC Radio 4.
“To show the whole thing without it being censored for the general public, for me personally, I don’t agree with that, but it’s not about my personal beliefs,” he added.
FILE – In this Tuesday, June 4, 2013 file photo, retired Staff Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford describes one of his wounds from the 2009 Fort Hood shooting rampage, at his home in Lillington, N.C. Nidal Hasan collected nearly $300,000 in his military salary while awaiting trial for the shooting, but his attorney said nearly all of it has been given to charity _ likely making it impossible for his victims to get any of it. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton, File)
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In this Tuesday, June 4, file photo, retired Staff Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford describes one of his wounds from the 2009 Fort Hood shooting rampage, at his home in Lillington, North Carolina. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)
" data-large-file="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Lunsford.jpg?w=696" src="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Lunsford.jpg" alt="Retired Staff Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford describes one of his wounds from the 2009 Fort Hood shooting rampage" class="wp-image-4761420" srcset="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Lunsford.jpg 700w, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Lunsford.jpg?resize=300,211 300w, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Lunsford.jpg?resize=150,106 150w, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Lunsford.jpg?resize=696,490 696w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px">
In this Tuesday, June 4, file photo, retired Staff Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford describes one of his wounds from the 2009 Fort Hood shooting rampage, at his home in Lillington, North Carolina. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)
Another victim, Army Reserve veteran Keara Torkelson, who was shot twice in the attack, said in a video on her Facebook page that she intends to be there on Dec. 3 to support other survivors, but does not want to personally witness his execution.
“I saw the destruction this man made,” she said in the video, which was posted before Hegseth’s announcement. “It affected my family and my life. It killed five of my friends from my unit. It’s a lot. And seeing death? I don’t feel like I want to see anymore death.”
DC reacts
Vice President JD Vance told reporters on Friday that while he views the Fort Hood massacre as “the worst terrorist attack on American soil outside of 9/11,” he will not “be watching it” if it is livestreamed, which he said he’s unsure will actually happen.
On Capitol Hill, Democrats were quick to push back on the plan, as were a handful of Republicans.
“The Trump Administration should reconsider this abhorrent move, which only gives the shooter what he wants: more attention and more control,” Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said. “Instead of forcing the shooter to face justice, the Trump Administration is literally handing him more power and offering him a global platform to amplify his hateful, anti-American message. This is a gift to anti-American terrorist recruiters. It is absolutely shameful and damaging to America’s interests and core values.”
His Republican counterpart, Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS), did not return a request for comment.
Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said: “Calling for a livestream of the execution of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is disturbing and makes a mockery of our legal system. There is a reason why we treat the meting out of justice with the seriousness it demands. We are a democratic country and should take the rule of law seriously, not turn it into a spectacle.”
The chairman of the committee, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), did not respond to a request for comment, but Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA), another republican on the committee, said, “I absolutely support the sentence of death, but live-streaming executions is what jihadists do. America is better than that.”
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who has said the biggest regret of his career was voting to confirm Hegseth as Secretary of War, said: “Hasan should face the death penalty, but making his execution public and streaming it? Beyond disgusting. Public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do. It should not be happening in America.”
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
