By Bo Erickson and Gram Slattery
WASHINGTON, Oct 9 (Reuters) – US Vice President JD Vance said on Friday that he would not watch a livestream of the military execution of the gunman who killed 13 people at Fort Hood military base in 2009, while President Donald Trump has yet to comment on the Pentagon plan.
“I don’t know that that’s actually going to happen,” Vance told reporters while campaigning in Ohio. “If it’s ultimately livestreamed, I’m not going to be watching it.”
Trump said at a White House event on Friday that former Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan would be executed by firing squad. But he has not commented on the livestream plan announced by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Thursday that has drawn criticism at home and abroad.
Some Republican lawmakers and conservative strategists have criticized the decision. Republican US Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina called the idea “beyond disgusting” in a social media post.
“Public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do,” said the senator, a frequent Trump critic who is not running for reelection. “It should not be happening in America.”
Hasan is set to become the first person to be executed by US military firing squad since 1945. The execution is scheduled for December 3 at the same sprawling Texas base where Hasan opened fire with a handgun in a medical facility.
(Reporting by Bo Erickson and Gram Slattery in Washington; Editing by Ross Colvin, Sanjeev Miglani and Bill Berkrot)
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