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Getty Images President Donald Trump said on Thursday the government would not live stream the execution of the U.S. Army Major convicted of killing 13 people at the Fort Hood military base, reversing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plan to broadcast the moment.
In a Truth Social post, Trump labeled Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan a “very bad and evil man” and claimed that the FBI under President Barack Obama failed to properly analyze intercepted communications between Hasan and Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in a government airstrike in 2011.
Still, “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.
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“He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed,” he added. “That said, the execution may be viewed in person by the immediate families of the victims, if they so choose. They deserve to witness JUSTICE! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week Hasan’s execution would be livestreamed, eliciting pushback from Democrats, Republicans and religious advocates about the idea. Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson both said they would not watch the execution, while networks and streaming services did not indicate whether they would air it at all.
If it had been carried out, the scheduled Dec. 3 execution of Hasan would have been the first in modern U.S. history to be broadcast and the U.S. Army’s first execution of a soldier since World War II. Hasan was convicted in 2013 for the 2009 shooting, in which he also injured 32 others.
Trump reportedly wavered on the idea of broadcasting the execution. CNN reported the president was unaware that Hegseth would announce the public stream and that Hasan was paralyzed from the waist down, making the image of the government publicly executing a paralyzed man less palatable.
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