WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance said he doesn't plan to watch the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan, whose death the Pentagon says will be livestreamed to the public.
"If it's ultimately livestreamed, I'm not gonna be watching it," Vance told reporters on Oct. 9.
Vance, who is Catholic, said he's not certain Hasan's death will actually be livestreamed, despite Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announcing in an Oct. 8 interview that Hasan's execution from a “firing squad of soldiers" will be made available for the public to see.
"I've seen his announcements. I don't know that that's actually going to happen," Vance said.
The Pentagon this week
announced plans to execute Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, by firing squad. The last time the United States executed a military member via firing squad was on Jan. 31, 1945, when Pvt. Eddie Slovik was executed for desertion, according to The Air Force Times.
In an Oct. 8 interview with conservative outlet Real America’s Voice, Hegseth said Hasan's execution will be made available for the public to see, drawing criticism from Trump critics for mirroring a practice used in Iran and Afghanistan, countries governed by oppressive regimes. The last documented public execution in the U.S. was in 1936, when about 20,000 people attended the hanging of Rainey Bethea in Owensboro, Kentucky.
"We'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public," Hegseth said. "Because people need to understand that there are serious consequences for these types of things."
Hasan, whose execution is set for Dec. 3, has said he was retaliating for U.S. wars in the Muslim world when he turned his gun on fellow soldiers at Fort Hood in Texas on Nov. 5, 2009, killing 13 people and injuring 31 others. He was sentenced to death in 2013 after a court martial.
"What I try to remind people is, look, this is a guy who committed, in my view, the worst terrorist attack on American soil outside of 9/11," Vance said. "The people that he was meant to treat, the Army soldiers that he was meant to treat for mental illness and other problems, he took them at their most vulnerable and gunned down these people where they lived.
"So whatever the controversy is about the method of the execution, I hope the people don't forget that this is a guy who brutally murdered a lot of innocent people," Vance said.
President Donald Trump has not addressed Hegseth's plans to livestream Hasan's execution, but endorsed killing the gunman by firing squad. "Death penalty through firing squad, and he deserves it," Trump said Oct. 9 during a Christopher Columbus Day White House celebration.
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Vance says he won't watch firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter
