JD Vance Claims He 'Won't Be Watching' Fort Hood Killer's Execution — After Pete Hegseth Declared Death by Firing Squad Would Be 'Public'
JD Vance declared he won't be watching the execution.
Oct. 9 2026, Published 7:03 p.m. ET
Vice President JD Vance will not watch the planned execution of Nidal Malik Hasan if the Pentagon livestreams it, casting doubt on whether the public broadcast Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described will take place at all, RadarOnline.com has learned.
"I don't know that that's actually going to happen," Vance told reporters. "If it's ultimately livestreamed, I'm not going to be watching it."
Pete Hegseth Believes the Public Execution Is a Deterrent
Hegseth wants the public execution to act as a deterrent.
Hasan, a former Army major and psychiatrist, was convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in a shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, on Nov. 5, 2009.
President Trump approved the death sentence on October 2. Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle then directed that Hasan be executed by firing squad at Fort Hood at 1 p.m. Central Time on December 3.
Hegseth said on Thursday, October 8, that the execution would be carried out by a firing squad of soldiers and made available for the public to watch.
"People need to understand that there's serious consequences for these types of things," Hegseth said at the time.
JD Vance Wants to Refocus the Conversation
Vance wants people to focus on the crime itself.
Vance, speaking while in Ohio, said he had seen the announcements and did not know whether a livestream would occur. He then turned to the underlying crime.
"This is a guy who committed, in my view, the worst terrorist attack on American soil outside of 9/11," the Veep said.
"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."
He added that whatever the controversy over the method, people should not forget that Hasan "brutally murdered a lot of innocent people."
Hegseth also touted the method of choice and location for the execution.
A military jury convicted Hasan in 2013 of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder and sentenced him to death.
He exhausted his military appeals, and the Supreme Court declined to review the case in March 2025.
Army regulations require the secretary of the Army to set an execution date between 60 and 150 days after presidential approval. Telle's October 6 directive placed the execution at the site of the 2009 attack.
Livestream Plans Have Drawn Criticism
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Hegseth is planning the first military execution since 1961.
The livestream plan has drawn criticism from both parties.
Some Republican lawmakers questioned the public broadcast, and the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops called the idea barbaric. Former officials have also warned that a livestream could serve as a recruiting tool for terrorists.
The last military execution was the hanging of Army Pvt. John Bennett on April 13, 1961. The last execution by a U.S. Army firing squad was that of Pvt. Eddie Slovik in 1945.
