Plan to broadcast Fort Hood killer's execution spurs criticism

Courtney McBride, Bloomberg News on Oct 9, 2026

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Politicians on both sides of the aisle criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for his plan to livestream the execution of a former Army major who killed 13 people in 2009, saying it violates American values and could fuel terrorist recruitment.

“I absolutely support the sentence of death, but live-streaming executions is what jihadists do,” Representative Austin Scott, a Georgia Republican who has been critical of Hegseth in the past, said in a post on social media. “America is better than that.”

Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, issued a statement condemning the plans for a public execution as “a barbaric promotion of a culture of death.” The Catholic Church opposes capital punishment.

Hegseth announced the plan during an interview with Real America’s Voice on Thursday. It touched off a wave of condemnation from Democrats, who renewed calls for his removal, and some Republicans. Public executions haven’t been carried out in the U.S. for decades, and Army regulations limit the witnesses who can attend — including anyone younger than 18. There is no formal provision for live-streaming the punishment.

On Nov. 5, 2009, Army psychologist Nidal Hasan opened fire at the Fort Hood Soldier Readiness Center in Killeen, Texas, killing 13 and wounding 32 before he was subdued. He was sentenced by a military court to death, and the Army plans to execute him by firing squad on Dec. 3.

President Donald Trump has yet to say whether he supports Hegseth’s plan for the livestream. Speaking at a Columbus Day event on Friday, he said Hasan deserves to be executed but didn’t comment further.

Hegseth’s decision had its supporters. Representative Andy Ogles, a Tennessee Republican, said in a social media post that public execution “is what this terrorist deserves. We will be watching.”

Katie Miller, who served in the first Trump administration and is married to senior aide Stephen Miller, invoked the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in backing the decision. “Charlie Kirk was murdered for all to see,” Miller said in a post on X. “We should all see accountability when it finally comes.”

Conservative commentator Erick Erickson suggested the administration would actually be undermining its own cause, including efforts to advance Christianity. He focused in part on the fact that Hasan was paralyzed from the waist down in the aftermath of the shooting and remains confined to a wheelchair.

“If the Pentagon does go forward with this, it is actually soul-twisting to turn the execution of a criminal into reality television for the entertainment of Americans,” Erickson wrote on his Substack.

Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, condemned the “barbaric spectacle” of a public execution and called on the Trump administration to reverse course.

“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,” Reed said.

Joe Kent, who led the National Counterterrorism Center from the start of the Trump administration until his resignation in March over the war in Iran, said Hasan deserves to die for his crimes, but called a public execution “beneath the dignity & decency of our nation.”

Kent, a former Green Beret and Trump-endorsed congressional candidate, warned that broadcasting the execution “gives the terrorists free propaganda that they will use to radicalize & recruit more terrorists” like Hasan.

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