Vance says if livestream of Hasan’s execution happens, he’s ‘not going to be watching it’
The White House referred questions about the livestream to the Pentagon.
Vice President JD Vance said Friday that he wasn't sure whether there would be a livestream of Nidal Hasan's December execution, despite Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's confirmation of that plan, adding that if it were to be livestreamed, "I'm not going to be watching it."
"I don't know that's actually going to happen," Vance said when asked about the livestream of the execution of Hasan -- the former Army major who killed 13 people and wounded 32 others in a 2009 shooting at Fort Hood, Texas -- an attack Hasan described as an act of jihad. His execution would be the military's first since 1961 and its first by firing squad since 1945.
Vance later added that he hopes "people don't forget that this is a guy who brutally murdered a lot of innocent people."
"Now that said, I mean, look, if it's all through livestream, I'm not going to be watching it," he said.
While President Donald Trump supports the execution, it's still not clear whether the president agrees with Hegseth's plan to make it available to the public to watch.
Asked whether Trump supports the decision to make the execution available for public viewing, the White House referred ABC News to the Pentagon.
The Pentagon’s plan to livestream the execution of Hasan has drawn growing concerns among Republican lawmakers -- with many drawing a distinction between putting Hasan to death and allowing the public to watch it happen.
Joe Kent, a former senior Trump administration official who quit his post as director of the National Counterterrorism Center in March over the Iran war, warned that broadcasting Hasan's death could become a recruiting tool for terrorist groups.
In a social media post, Kent called the plan "beneath the dignity" of the United States, adding that, "Streaming his execution is not just a stain on our morality -- it also gives the terrorists free propaganda that they will use to radicalize & recruit more terrorists like Hassan."
Outgoing GOP Sen. Thom Tillis condemned the livestream plan Thursday as "beyond disgusting."
"Public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do. It should not be happening in America," Tillis said.
Tillis, whose vote helped secure Hegseth's confirmation, recently described supporting him for Defense secretary as the "biggest regret of my career" in his new memoir.
Other Republicans echoed his objections, including Rep. Austin Scott, a member of the House Armed Services Committee.
"I absolutely support the sentence of death, but live-streaming executions is what jihadists do. America is better than that," Scott said in a statement on X.
Trump reiterated his support for executing Hasan by firing squad during remarks on Friday, but made no mention of broadcasting it. He framed the execution as part of his administration's broader effort to impose harsher criminal penalties.
"You know, today, if you get two days in jail -- today, you can do almost anything, nothing happens. But we're changing that, you see that. The death penalty through firing squad … and he deserves it. Killed and wounded many, many people, a maniac.” Trump said, without mentioning the livestream.
John Cohen, ABC News contributor and former Homeland Security official, said the visual of the U.S. military shooting a former member of the military "is a visual that will horrify some Americans and be exploited by our adversaries."
"As far as it serving as a deterrent to future attack -- for most terrorist -- martyrdom is the objective. Terrorist and other mass casualty attackers plan to and relish the thought of dying if it brings attention to their cause or grievance. So there is likely minimal deterrence an achieved by live-streaming," Cohen said.
Livestream announcement a surprise to some Army officials
Public executions were gradually outlawed by states beginning in the 19th century and have long been taboo across much of the developed world. They remain a practice in some authoritarian countries, including North Korea, where two nuclear researchers were reportedly executed publicly in early 2025 for failing to meet research expectations. Terrorist organizations also frequently use public executions as a means of intimidation.
Thursday’s announcement that Hasan’s execution would be livestreamed came as a surprise to some Army planners involved in the preparations, according to two officials with direct knowledge.
The decision to use a firing squad was also unexpected, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.
The Army had been preparing since at least February to potentially execute its four death row prisoners, including Hasan, but those plans centered on lethal injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, where the Justice Department carried out a series of civilian federal executions during Trump's first term, according to service documentation outlining the plans reviewed by ABC News.
Army planners are scrambling to develop procedures for carrying out an execution by firing squad, a method the service has not used since 1945, one official described. The Army's last written procedures for a firing squad execution date to 1959, leaving officials to determine how to adapt decades-old guidance for Hasan's execution.
Lethal injection had been the Army's only authorized method of execution since the 1980s, until a 2023 rule change gave the Army secretary broad discretion to determine how condemned prisoners would be put to death.
One priority for Army planners is protecting the identities of soldiers selected to carry out the execution, one official described. It remains unclear whether the soldiers would wear masks or what other measures the service might take to conceal their identities, particularly during a livestream.
The Army also has not publicly explained how it would handle a botched execution in which Hasan survives the initial volley. Procedures dating to 1959 call for the soldier commanding the firing squad to shoot the condemned prisoner in the head at point-blank range with a pistol if the initial shots fail to kill him.
It also remains unclear whether major online platforms, including YouTube, Facebook and X, would carry the execution livestream. None of the platforms responded to ABC News' request for comment.
The Pentagon routinely broadcasts its events through its own websites and social media accounts, but the platforms have rules governing graphic violence.
