YOU THINK??? He is a fucking lunatic....

Hegseth faces bipartisan backlash over public execution for Fort Hood shooter

Both Republican and Democratic critics said the plan was beneath the United States.

By Connor O'Brien, Mark Satter and Leo Shane III

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s surprise plan to livestream the military’s first execution in six decades drew fierce blowback from both sides of the aisle.

Senior lawmakers from both parties said the plan to broadcast the scheduled Dec. 3 firing squad execution of former Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan amounted to a dishonorable public spectacle that could inspire terrorism.

Hasan was court-martialed for the killing of 13 people in a 2009 shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, and sentenced to death.

“Hasan should face the death penalty, but making his execution public and streaming it? Beyond disgusting,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a frequent critic of Hegseth, said on X. “Public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do. It should not be happening in America.”

Joe Kent, who served in the Trump administration as head of the National Counterterrorism Center before resigning in March in protest over the Iran war, criticized the tactic as “beneath the dignity” of the country.

“Streaming his execution is not just a stain on our morality — it also gives the terrorists free propaganda that they will use to radicalize & recruit more terrorists like Hassan [sic],” Kent said on X.

President Donald Trump earlier this week approved moving ahead with a firing squad to execute Hasan. Hegseth declared Thursday in an interview that the execution would take place at Fort Hood and that the Pentagon would “make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public.”

Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said a public execution “makes a mockery of our legal system.”

“There is a reason why we treat the meting out of justice with the seriousness it demands,” Smith said in a statement. “We are a democratic country and should take the rule of law seriously, not turn it into a spectacle.”

The move is without modern precedent in the U.S., and it also raised questions over whether social media platforms would carry to the livestream. American platforms explicitly bar the livestreaming of executions.

The military has not carried out an execution since 1961, when Army Private John Bennett was hanged in front a small audience for rape and attempted murder. And the U.S. has not held a public execution since at least 1936.

Hegseth acknowledged that similar plans for a public military execution haven’t been made since around World War II. But the Pentagon chief argued, “I kind of like the mentality we had in WWII — which was win, understand that when the enemy attacks you, you stand your ground.”

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) called for the Pentagon to rescind the plans immediately.

“We can seek justice in this country without glorifying violence and turning an execution into a grotesque public spectacle,” she said on X. “What this criminal did was abhorrent and must be punished—but we as a country cannot condone livestreaming a man’s death for entertainment.”

Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) added that “the U.S. government and victims can have justice without us creating a snuff film.”

Not all lawmakers objected to the plan for a public execution.

Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) said on X that “public execution is what this terrorist deserves” and called the decision to broadcast the event “excellent.”

The case could still be hung up for years depending on possible appeals, retired Air Force lawyer Lt. Col. Rachel VanLandingham said. Hasan could still file a habeas corpus relief in federal court, or his legal team or another party could file a motion to appeal the sentence.

Hasan represented himself during his 2013 court-martial, though a civilian legal team has remained involved with his case. If his lawyers or Hasan himself appeals, the execution could be delayed for “years” as the case works its way through the court system, VanLandingham said.

The former commander of Fort Hood, retired Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, wrote on social media Thursday that while as commander of the base he approved the death sentence, “it is fair to ask whether carrying out the sentence at Fort Hood and live streaming it is justice, vengeance, or a mere spectacle for the masses.”

Livestreaming the execution of the wheelchair-bound Hasan “surrenders a piece of the moral high ground we have held up to now in our campaigns against Al Qaeda and ISIS by adopting their barbaric practice of video recording the executions of their prisoners,” MacFarland wrote.