By Alejandra Jaramillo, CNN
(CNN) — President Donald Trump said Thursday that Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan’s firing squad execution will not be livestreamed, reversing an announcement from the Pentagon last week.
“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 on Truth Social.
“He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed,” Trump said of Hasan, who was convicted of killing 13 people and wounding dozens of others in the 2009 shooting. Trump added that the immediate families of the victims will be able to watch the execution in person.
CNN reported earlier this week that the president and his advisers were debating whether to call off plans to livestream the execution, with Trump having remarked privately that he did not initially know that Hasan was paralyzed from the waist down.
The president was not aware that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was announcing last week that the administration planned to let the public watch the execution, sources familiar with the discussions said, and was not sure what to make of it at first. Trump was, however, firmly behind the decision to execute Hasan via firing squad, multiple officials told CNN, and he’s often defended it in public.
The plan to livestream the execution immediately faced bipartisan backlash, and people across the Pentagon and the Army were caught off guard, CNN has previously reported.
Public opposition to the idea was also strong — 80% of US adults, including 64% of Republicans, said the execution should not be livestreamed in an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll released on Thursday.
Hegseth had initially recommended death by firing squad for Hasan, and Trump approved it. The execution, which is scheduled for December 3 at Fort Hood, will be the US Army’s first such execution of a soldier since World War II and its first imposition of any death penalty on an armed service member in 65 years.
This story has been updated with additional information.
The-CNN-Wire
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