‘Not going to be watching it’: Vance as Hegseth faces bipartisan backlash over execution plan
.@VP JD Vance on livestreamed execution: "If it's ultimately livestreamed, I'm not gonna be watching it." https://t.co/DKQ7X2MiWw
— CSPAN (@cspan) October 9, 2026
WASHINGTON, DC: Vice President JD Vance said he would not watch the planned livestream of Nidal Hasan’s execution if the Pentagon proceeds with the broadcast, following Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's announcement.
Hegseth confirmed on Thursday, Oct. 8, that the execution of the Fort Hood shooter is scheduled to be livestreamed in December.
JD Vance said he wouldn’t watch the execution livestream
Vice President JD Vance, who arrived in his home state of Ohio and his former Senate seat to campaign for the Republican Party ahead of the midterms on Friday, Oct 9, said he will not be watching the execution of Nidal Hasan if the Pentagon follows through with its plan to livestream the event.
“I’ve seen those announcements. I don’t know if that’s actually going to happen,” Vance told reporters Friday in Lima, Ohio.
“This is a guy who committed, in my view, the worst terrorist attack on American soil outside of 9/11,” he continued.
“The people that he was meant to treat, the army soldiers 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 that people don’t forget that this is a guy who brutally murdered a lot of innocent people,” he said.
“Now that said, if it’s ultimately livestreamed, I’m not going to be watching it.”
Hegseth says public will be able to watch Hasan’s execution
Hegseth announced on Thursday that Hasan’s execution by firing squad is scheduled for December 3 and that the public would be able to watch it.
Secretary Hegseth was asked about the execution of Nidal Hasan: "No-brainer—execution by firing squad... Of course we're doing it at Fort Hood. We're going to do it at 1 o'clock—which is when he did it. It's going to be soldiers with rifles executing the firing squad."
— DOW Rapid Response (@DOWResponse) October 8, 2026
“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public,” Hegseth said in an interview with the conservative outlet Real America’s Voice.
Firing squad executions are rare in the US, and public displays of the death penalty are even less common.
The last public execution is considered to be the 1936 hanging of Rainey Bethea, a Black man from Kentucky who was found guilty of raping a White woman by an all-White jury.
The announcement sparked immediate bipartisan backlash.
“I absolutely support the sentence of death, but live-streaming executions is what jiha*** do. America is better than that,” Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.) said in a post on social platform X.
I absolutely support the sentence of death, but live-streaming executions is what jihadists do. America is better than that.
— Rep. Austin Scott (@AustinScottGA08) October 9, 2026
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn) called the move “disgusting” during an interview on CNN.
“What is he, mimicking IS** executions?” Murphy said.
On December 3 at 1 pm local time, the public will be able to watch Nidal Hasan’s death at Texas’ Fort Hood, where he killed 13 people in a 2009 mass shooting.
