Tillis: Livestreaming Hasan execution ‘beyond disgusting’

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) on Thursday slammed the recent decision by the U.S. military to livestream the upcoming execution of convicted Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan, calling it “beyond disgusting.”

“Hasan should face the death penalty, but making his execution public and streaming it? Beyond disgusting,” he wrote on social platform X. “Public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do. It should not be happening in America.”

Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist who opened fire at the Fort Hood base in Texas in 2009, killing 13 people, is set to be put to death on Dec. 3, according to the U.S. Army. He was found guilty in 2013 of 45 counts of premeditated murder and attempted premeditated murder, dismissed from the Army and given a death penalty sentence.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Thursday that the execution, by firing squad, would be open to the public. It is set to take place at Fort Hood.

“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 told Real America’s Voice onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) criticized the Pentagon chief’s decision to livestream the event, also calling it “disgusting” later Thursday.

“What, is he mimicking ISIS executions? I mean, I understand that in this country we have the death penalty, but public execution is medieval,” Murphy said in an appearance on CNN’s “OutFront.”

“That is just absolutely extraordinary, galling,” he continued, “No matter whether you support or oppose the death penalty, public hangings and executions? That’s what America has become? Um, that’s, that’s pretty extraordinary.”

Army rules allow for at least two media outlets to be present for an execution, but none have been broadcast live in the U.S. The nation’s last public execution was in 1936.

There are currently only four others sitting on the U.S. military’s death row, with Hasan being the most recently sentenced to death, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.