JD Vance casts doubt on firing squad execution and says he will not watch it
The planned execution of Nidal Hasan by firing squad would be the first military execution in more than 60 years.
US Vice-President JD Vance has cast doubt on the Pentagon's plans to livestream a firing squad execution of the Fort Hood attacker.
Vance expressed uncertainty to reporters about whether the December execution would go ahead as planned, saying: "I don't know that that's actually going to happen". He added, that "if it's through live stream, I'm not going to be watching it".
Hours later, President Donald Trump said he "absolutely" approved the live stream plans but the Pentagon was still "making a determination" on it.
Nidal Hasan killed 13 unarmed soldiers at a base in Texas in 2009, injuring another 32. The firing squad execution would be the first military execution in more than 60 years.
The Pentagon announced earlier this week it would execute Nisan, a former US Army major, on 3 December by firing squad in the attack on the Fort Hood base.
Then on Thursday US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the execution would be livestreamed for the public. "People need to understand that there's serious consequences for these types of things," Hegseth explained.
Trump, as he left the White House on Friday, was asked about the possibility that visuals of Hasan's execution could be used as propaganda for terrorists.
"He killed 13, 14 people, badly wounded 20-some-odd people, and he's totally nuts," Trump said. "So I really don't care how he goes, as long as he goes, and I think that the death penalty is a very worthy way of going for him."
The Pentagon declined to comment further when asked for more information about a decision on the livestream.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Vance condemned Hasan's attack on the base as "the worst terrorist attack on American soil outside of 9/11". Asked about how his Catholic faith impacted his stance on the plan to stream a public execution, Vance questioned whether it would happen.
But he noted that Hasan, who was a US Army psychiatrist, was meant to treat soldiers for mental illness and other problems and "took them at their most vulnerable and gunned down these people where they lived".
The announcement about a possible livestream has been met with criticism from both political parties.
Republican Senator John Curtis pointed to Rome's history of a "bloody spectacle" corrupting people who watched them, warning that public executions erode civilisations "when it cultivates an appetite for executions as a form of entertainment".
Curtis said that Hegseth's plan "risks feeding that appetite" and urged him to reconsider.
"The victims deserve justice administered with solemnity. Broadcasting a death diminishes us and is not an effective deterrent," he said.
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy told CNN that the idea was "disgusting" and reminiscent of executions carried out by the Islamic State group.
Georgia lawmaker Austin Scott, a Republican, said that he "absolutely" supports the death sentence, but that live-streaming executions "is what jihadists do. America is better than that".
John Bolton, a former national security adviser during the first Trump administration, told BBC's Radio 4 PM that he supports capital punishment, but that the livestream is "unnecessary" because there are provisions for interested parties to view the execution in person or to report on it.
"I just think this is a mark by Secretary Hegseth doing something he thinks will please President Trump. That's the way he's been running the defence department. I think that's really not appropriate for a secretary of defence," Bolton said.
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops condemned the decision to publicly livestream Hasan's execution, expressing "shock and great sorrow" in a statement.
The UN human rights office told AFP that livestreaming it would be "tantamount to a public execution and would breach the absolute prohibition of torture".
Hasan opened fire in a crowded medical building where deploying soldiers were awaiting check-ups and vaccines.
He later admitted in court that he was the gunman and apologised for "any mistakes". He said during his court-martial in 2013 that he believed he was protecting Muslims and the Taliban in Afghanistan from the US military.
The killings on 5 November 2009 were the deadliest ever non-combat attack on an American military base.
Military law requires that military execution be approved by the US president. It also requires appellate review, when a higher court inspects the decision and gives a final judgement on its legality to move forward.
