President Donald Trump said Thursday that the planned execution by firing squad of convicted Fort Hood mass killer Nidal Hasan would not be live-streamed.
Trump’s announcement came after growing opposition to the idea of showing Hasan’s execution live online, with concern that the footage would become a recruiting tool for terrorists. Hasan is scheduled to be executed at 1 p.m. local time on Dec. 3 in Fort Hood, which is located in Killeen, Texas.
“Nidal Malik Hasan, a former U.S. Army Major turned traitor, is a very bad and evil man,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
“With all of that being said, 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.
“He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed.”
“That said, the execution may be viewed in person by the immediate families of the victims, if they so choose,” Trump wrote. “They deserve to witness JUSTICE!”
The Pentagon on Oct. 5 said that Trump had approved a recommendation by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to have Hasan, 56, executed by a U.S. Army firing squad for the Nov. 5, 2009, shooting massacre of 13 people at the Army base. Another 32 people were injured in the shooting.
Hegseth on Oct. 8 said the execution would be at Fort Hood and, “He’s going to get a firing squad of soldiers, as it should be.”
“And we’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public, because people need to understand that … there’s serious consequences for these types of things,” Hegseth said.
The Pentagon later said it would be live-streamed.
Hasan was convicted and sentenced to death after a 2013 court-martial.
He would be the first person executed as the result of a U.S. armed forces court-martial since 1961. That year Army Pvt. John Bennett was hanged at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, for the rape and attempted murder of a girl in Austria.
CNBC has reached out to the Pentagon for comment on Trump’s post.
Nader Hasan, a cousin of Nidal who had spoken out after the Fort Hood shooting, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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