Republicans reject Hegseth’s plan to live-stream execution of Fort Hood shooter, accuse he’s copying ‘oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan’

After Pete Hegseth pitched the idea of livestreaming Nidal Hasan’s planned execution, fellow Republicans have come forward to publicly condemn the idea as barbaric. 

Nidal Hasan, a major practicing psychiatry for the Army, shot 13 people dead and wounded 32 more at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009. His court-martial ended on August 23, 2013, with convictions on all 42 counts, and a death sentence followed five days later. President Trump finally signed off on that sentence on October 2, 2026. Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle then ordered a firing squad for 1 p.m. on December 3, 2026, at Ford Hood, where the incident took place. 

Now, Hegseth is pitching the idea that the execution should be something the whole country can watch. He spoke with Real America’s Voice host Jack Posobiec aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. The Pentagon’s rapid response account posted the clip on October 8, in which he calls a firing squad a “no-brainer” for Hasan. “We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public.” (per the Associated Press)

Understandably, not everyone is convinced that reviving public executions is such a good idea. Though a Pentagon official said on October 9 that the livestream was going ahead, (via Newsweek) Vice President JD Vance told reporters that “I don’t know that that’s actually going to happen.” He did add that even if it happened, “I’m not going to be watching it.”

It turns out Vance isn’t the only one.

Republicans want the sentence carried out but aren’t on board with the livestream

Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina took to X on October 8 to write: “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.”

Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia, another Republican, drew the same line. “I absolutely support the sentence of death, but live-streaming executions is what jihadists do,” he wrote. Sen. John Curtis of Utah echoed the same sentiment. Democrats have objected as well, and Sen. Chris Murphy, learning of the plan in the middle of a CNN interview, reached for the word “medieval” to describe it.

Hasan’s execution would be the first in the United States open to public view since August 14, 1936, when Rainey Bethea was hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky. (per Aljazeera) The military has also never put anyone to death since Army Pvt. John Bennett was hanged on April 13, 1961, and its last firing squad was in 1945, when it executed Pvt. Eddie Slovik in France for desertion.