US House Speaker says execution livestream could be terrorist 'recruiting tool'

WASHINGTON: US House Speaker Mike Johnson said he had reservations about a planned livestreamed execution in an interview broadcast by CBS News on Monday (Oct 12).

Nidal Hasan, 56, was sentenced to be executed by firing squad on Dec 3 at Fort Hood, Texas, where he shot and killed 13 people in 2009.

The decision to livestream the execution - which would be the first US military execution by firing squad since 1945 - has drawn widespread blowback, with the top congressional Republican adding his voice to the mix.

"The concern would be that you would create a video that would be a recruiting tool for future terrorists," Johnson told CBS News, adding: "We've got to think through the policy implications of all that."

The Republican lawmaker said he would not watch the execution if it were broadcast live in any case.

"There are colleagues who have concerns," he said.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended the idea to livestream the execution, saying: "We'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public."

President Donald Trump, for his part, has said that a final decision on whether the execution would be broadcast live or not remained to be made.