President Donald Trump announced in a Thursday post on Truth Social that he canceled the Pentagon's plan to livestream the Dec. 3 firing-squad execution of convicted Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan. "He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed," Trump said of Hasan. The former Army major and psychiatrist murdered 13 people and injured 32 others at the Fort Hood Army base in Killeen, Texas, on Nov. 5, 2009.
The president wrote that broadcasting Hasan's execution "might have been a strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with Terrorists and SCUM like Hasan," but he acknowledged that "many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die, through streaming, or through any other visual device." "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!" Trump added. Trump's announcement came after Secretary of War Pete Hegseth told conservative political activist Jack Posobiec in an interview aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln earlier this month that the public would be able to watch soldiers shoot Hasan in December, according to The Washington Post. A Pentagon official later confirmed that the execution would be livestreamed, according to CBS News.
The planned public execution prompted debate among Christians about the morality and wisdom of the U.S. government livestreaming an execution.
Tony Perkins, president of the Washington-based Christian conservative advocacy group Family Research Council, wrote on Facebook that while he sees a "biblical foundation" for capital punishment, that doesn't mean "executions should become public spectacles." "[W]hen we separate capital punishment from its moral foundation, we risk turning an act of justice into what appears to be an act of vengeance," Perkins wrote. "Rather than affirming the sanctity