Hegesth plan to publicly livestream Nidal Hasan execution draws bipartisan, UN condemnation

“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,” Hegseth told Jack Posobiec.

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s plan to livestream the December 3 firing-squad execution of Nidal Hasan has drawn objections from the UN, Republican and Democratic lawmakers, and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, while the Trump administration has not made a final decision on the broadcast. 

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Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, fatally shot 13 unarmed US soldiers and wounded 32 others at the Fort Hood military base in 2009. A Defense Department official announced that his execution would be livestreamed.

“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,” Hegseth told podcaster Jack Posobiec aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln on Wednesday.

Hegseth separately told Real America's Voice that Hasan was "gonna get a firing squad of soldiers - as it should be.” Asked about any final requests from Hasan or contact with US President Donald Trump, Hegseth said: "Don't care. We'll see him on December 3rd."

The UN human rights office told AFP that livestreaming the execution would be "tantamount to a public execution and would breach the absolute prohibition of torture.” 

A Pentagon spokesperson said Monday that Trump had approved Hegseth’s recommendation. Trump said Friday that Hasan deserved execution by firing squad but did not address livestreaming at the time. Speaking to reporters Friday evening, he said the administration would decide on the broadcast. 

Vice President JD Vance also questioned whether it would happen, saying, “I don’t know that that’s actually going to happen.” He said he would not watch. 

The last public US execution was Rainey Bethea’s 1936 hanging. Hasan’s execution would be the US Army’s first execution of a soldier since World War II and the first death penalty imposed on an armed service member in 65 years.

Public executions only done in Iran, Afghanistan over last year

Of the more than 2,700 executions recorded in 17 countries last year, public executions occurred in just two. Amnesty International documented 11 such executions in Iran in 2025 and six in Afghanistan.

Republican lawmakers joined the criticism. Outgoing Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said public executions belong to “oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan,” while Georgia GOP Rep. Austin Scott said “live-streaming executions is what jihadists do. America is better than that.”

Republican Sen. John Curtis warned against turning executions into “bloody spectacles,” while Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut called the proposal “disgusting” and “medieval.”

The president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops called the plan a “barbaric promotion of a culture of death.”