WASHINGTON, Oct 15 (Reuters) – US President Donald Trump has canceled the planned livestream of the execution of the former US Army major who killed 13 people at Texas’ Fort Hood, saying on Thursday that he had overruled his defense chief who had intended it to be a public spectacle.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had announced earlier this month that Nidal Hasan would be executed by a firing squad on December 3 at the Fort Hood military base, the site of Hasan’s 2009 attack, surprising many by saying it would be broadcast live. No other country is known to televise or livestream judicial executions.
Trump and his advisers had been unaware of the livestream plan before Hegseth’s announcement in a media interview, according to a White House official speaking on condition of anonymity.
“I think streaming the execution for all to see might have been a strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with Terrorists and SCUM like Hasan but, many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die, through streaming, or through any other visual device,” Trump wrote in a social media post. “He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed.”
The families of Hasan’s victims will be able to view the execution in person if they so choose, as is standard at US executions.
Some of Trump’s fellow Republicans, including Vice President JD Vance, as well as religious leaders and international observers had expressed doubts about the Pentagon’s livestream plan. Recent polls have also shown a majority of Americans opposed livestreaming it. Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who oversees the spiritual care of Catholic members of the US armed forces, also raised objections, while Pope Leo condemned capital punishment in all its forms.
Hegseth’s announcement came as capital punishment already faced renewed scrutiny after Christa Pike, convicted of murder in the 1990s, survived two lethal injections in a botched execution attempt by Tennessee last month that left her badly injured and requiring hospitalization.
Hasan, a former US Army psychiatrist, was found guilty of premeditated murder in a military trial for fatally shooting 13 unarmed soldiers and wounding 32 others in a medical facility at the vast Fort Hood base in 2009. Law enforcement shot Hasan during his rampage, paralyzing him from the waist down, and he now uses a wheelchair.
Hegseth had said the broadcasting of the execution was needed to ensure that people understand that “there’s serious consequences for these types of things.”
The cancellation comes less than three weeks before elections to determine whether Republicans retain control of Congress as voters increasingly register disapproval of Trump’s policies in opinion polls.
A spokesperson for the Department of Defense did not respond to a request for comment.
Senator John Curtis, a Republican representing Utah, called the cancellation “the right move” in a statement.
US Representative Richard Neal, a Democrat from Massachusetts, called the original plan “a profound failure of moral judgment and basic human decency.”
“Such a horrific and vile spectacle should never have been considered in the first place,” Neal said in a statement.
An attorney representing Hasan could not immediately be reached for comment, and it was unclear if the scheduled December 3 execution date would be delayed by legal challenges.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey; Additional reporting by Jonathan Allen, Nandita Bose, Bo Erickson, David Morgan and Katharine Jackson; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Scott Malone and Mark Porter)
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