Vice President JD Vance won’t be watching the potentially live-streamed execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan.
The vice president discussed the controversial execution as he spoke to reporters during a trip to Ohio on Friday. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced on October 8 that the execution would take place at Fort Hood, at the same time of day when the Fort Hood shooter carried out his crime in 2009, killing 13 people and wounding 32 others.
“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it,” Hegseth told Real America’s Voice’s Jack Posobiec in an interview aboard the USS Lincoln. “That it’s public. Because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things!”
Asked by a reporter if he approves of the public execution as a Catholic, Vance suggested the live stream might not actually happen, saying: “Well, first of all, I see these announcements, I don’t know that that’s actually going to happen….I think it’s going to happen in December when he’s executed.”
.@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
“But 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, 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,” Vance said.
The vice president added: “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. Now that said, I mean, look, if it’s through live stream, I’m not going to be watching it.”
President Donald Trump, asked by reporters on Friday if he had personally approved the live-streaming of the execution, responded: “Did I approve? Absolutely.”
During the same gaggle with reporters, however, the president suggested the live stream was still up for discussion: “I’m going to make a determination about that, but he will be killed. He will be through firing squad. … I really don’t care how he goes as long as he goes. And I think that the death penalty is a very worthy way of going for him.”
The War Department announced on October 5 that Hasan would be executed by firing squad.
“Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has recommended — and President Donald J. Trump has approved — death by U.S. Army firing squad for convicted terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan, the jihadist who opened fire on unarmed American soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009,” said Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell.
“He killed 13 people and wounded 32 others while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ during the attack,” Parnell said. “The Secretary of the Army will set the time and place of the execution. Judgement day for Hasan has finally come.”