Vance ‘unsure’ if Pentagon will proceed with execution livestream

Vice President JD Vance said on Friday he does not know whether the Pentagon will carry out its plan to livestream the execution by firing squad of the former US Army psychiatrist convicted in the deadly 2009 Fort Hood shooting, a plan that has drawn broad condemnation. As the controversy over the plan championed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth grew, former US officials said a livestream of the execution would hand terrorists a recruiting tool, while a top US Catholic bishop called the plan “barbaric. ” “I don’t know that that’s actually going to happen,” Vance told reporters in Cincinnati, referring to a livestream. Vance added that if a livestream of the execution scheduled for December 3 occurs, “I’m not going to be watching it. ” The No.

2 US official’s comments raise questions about the extent of opposition within President Donald Trump’s administration to the Pentagon’s plans to livestream the execution of Nidal Hasan, who was found guilty in a US military trial of killing 13 people at Fort Hood in Texas. Trump on Friday said at a White House event that Hasan deserves the death penalty by firing squad, calling him “a maniac. ” The Republican president has not said whether he thinks the event should be shown on a livestream. Death penalty experts said it would mark the first-known broadcast or livestream of a lawful execution. Hegseth, a Trump appointee, said on Thursday the public nature of the execution would demonstrate “there’s serious consequences for these types of things. ” Hegseth reposted a comment Trump made in 2013, possibly about the Boston Marathon bombers, saying: “Should be public execution for all to see — you will end this bullshit fast! ” The Pentagon on Friday declined to say whether families of those killed in Hasan’s attack would be invited to…