Both Republican and Democratic critics said the plan was beneath the United States.
10/09/2026 10:44 AM EDT
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s surprise plan to livestream the military’s first execution in six decades drew fierce blowback from both sides of the aisle.
Senior lawmakers from both parties said the plan to broadcast the scheduled Dec. 3 firing squad execution of former Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan amounted to a dishonorable public spectacle that could inspire terrorism.
Hasan was court-martialed for the killing of 13 people in a 2009 shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, and sentenced to death. And while many Republicans back the death penalty for Hasan, even some staunch conservatives blanched at the notion of allowing the public to watch it carried out.
“I absolutely support the sentence of death, but live-streaming executions is what jihadists do,” Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.), a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a social media post. “America is better than that.”