Trump, after bipartisan backlash, says Pentagon won't livestream execution of Fort Hood shooter

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday that the Pentagon will no longer livestream the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan, after the announcement faced bipartisan criticism and Vice President JD Vance said he wouldn’t watch it.

Trump said on social media that publicly airing the execution “might have been a strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with Terrorists and SCUM like Hasan."

But, he continued, “many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die, through streaming, or through any other visual device.”

The Pentagon has said Hasan’s execution is scheduled for Dec. 3. Trump said the execution can be viewed in person by immediate families of the victims, “if they so choose.”

The announcement earlier this month from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that Hasan’s execution would be public — and subsequent confirmation from the Pentagon that it would be livestreamed — prompted significant blowback from both Republicans and Democrats, with many pointing out that the images could be used to fuel radicalization.

Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell said Trump and Hegseth discussed the decision to drop the livestream plans before the president's announcement on social media.

“The Secretary supports the President’s decision, and they are completely aligned,” Parnell said.

When asked how the public execution comported with his Christian faith earlier this month, Vance said “I don’t know that that’s actually going to happen.”

“So whatever the controversy is about the method of the execution, I hope that people don’t forget that this is a guy who brutally murdered a lot of innocent people,” Vance said, adding: “Now, that said, I mean, look, if it’s ultimately livestreamed, I’m not going to be watching it.”

Vance is Catholic, and the church has long opposed capital punishment. The head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had condemned the Trump administration’s decision to livestream Hasan’s execution, with Archbishop Paul S. Coakley saying the move was a “barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered.”

Other top Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., voiced similar sentiments.

For his part, the president has defended his decision to approve the use of a firing squad, but had for days distanced himself from Hegseth's announcement that it would be public.

"Well, they’re making a determination about that,” Trump said Friday when asked about the livestream. As for Hasan and the method of execution, Trump said then: “He will be killed. He will be, through firing squad. I really don’t care how he goes, as long as he goes. And I think the death penalty is a very worthy way of going for him.”

Hasan, an Army psychiatrist who held the rank of major, walked into a medical building on Nov. 5, 2009, where soldiers were waiting in long lines to receive immunizations and medical clearance for deployment. He shouted “Allahu akbar” — Arabic for “God is great!” — and opened fire with a laser-sighted handgun. He also shot at the backs of soldiers fleeing toward the parking lot.

Hasan said it was an effort to stop them from going to Afghanistan and killing his fellow Muslims. A military judge barred him from presenting that as a defense during his 2013 trial. Hasan was left paralyzed from the waist down after being shot in the back by law enforcement and now uses a wheelchair.

Hasan could seek a lengthy delay of his execution, though given his behavior at trial, he may not want to.

The U.S. military hasn’t executed a service member by firing squad since World War II. The last military execution took place on April 13, 1961, when Army Pvt. John Bennett was executed by hanging.

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Associated Press writer Konstantin Toropin contributed to this report.

FILE - This undated photo provided by the Bell County Sheriff's Department shows former Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan. (Bell County Sheriff's Department via AP, File)

President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Majestic Valley Arena, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in Kalispell, Mont. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

NEW YORK (AP) — Former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro insisted in court on Thursday that newly unsealed torture allegations against him and his wife were “false accusations.”

Maduro and Cilia Flores, both shackled at the ankles, were brought to court to face a rewritten indictment that expands from an initial set of drug trafficking charges to accuse them of leading a state-sponsored repression campaign that tortured scores of victims, including three Americans.

Maduro twice defied a judge’s request that he enter a plea to the charges, instead condemning them through a courtroom interpreter as “false accusations and false testimony.” Irked, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein took matters into his own hands, interjecting that “a plea of not guilty will be entered on behalf of Mr. Maduro.”

Flores was less combative. After saying that she’d read through a version of the new indictment written in Spanish, she told the judge through the Spanish interpreter: “I am completely innocent. I am not guilty.”

They were seized from their Caracas home by the U.S. military in a nighttime raid in January. Their trial will begin June 14, 2027, two weeks later than previously set, according to a schedule approved by the judge Thursday.

As they have in the past, Maduro and Flores listened to the proceedings through headphones carrying the voice of a courtroom translator. At times, the bespectacled Maduro looked through papers in front of him.

When they entered the courtroom, Maduro waved to people in the gallery and shook hands with one of his lawyers, Barry Pollack, while Flores gave a peck on the cheek to Mark Donnelly, one of her attorneys.

Pollack said when the charges were announced last week that Maduro, 63, denies them and “looks forward to his day in court.”

Pollack agreed with the government’s request to move the trial to June 14. He told Hellerstein the new schedule was “very aggressive” given the new allegations, but added that he’s hopeful they’ll be able to stick to it.

According to the rewritten indictment, Maduro oversaw a violent torture system that beat, asphyxiated, and delivered electric shocks to its victims. He is accused of personally recommending torture methods, receiving updates on specific victims’ treatment, and threatening to kill one prisoner’s child as a form of psychological torture.

Flores, 70, a former attorney general, helped develop the repressive system and ordered the torture of some specific people, the indictment alleges.

Maduro, who served as Venezuela’s president from 2013 until his capture in January, has been under investigation for years by the International Criminal Court over allegations of crimes against humanity, tied to his crackdown on opponents. He has always denied wrongdoing.

Torture is a crime under international law and can be prosecuted outside of the nation where the abuse occurred and regardless of the victims' nationality. But the prosecution of foreign officials in the U.S. is exceedingly rare, having been tried only a few times, including against the son of Liberian President Charles Taylor, Russians responsible for war crimes in Ukraine and a former prison warden in Bashar Assad’s Syria.

Earlier this year, Maduro and his wife pleaded not guilty in the U.S. drug case, which said they conspired to flood the U.S. with cocaine. Their attorneys say the case should be dismissed on immunity grounds because they were the leader and first lady of a foreign country.

The revised indictment covers allegations of torture stretching back to Maduro’s ascent to power in 2013, when he took over as president from his mentor Hugo Chávez, who died of cancer that year.

The couple was scheduled to return to the courtroom for another pretrial hearing on Dec. 17.

Associated Press Writer Joshua Goodman in Miami contributed to this report.

FILE - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores wave after his swearing-in ceremony for a third term at the National Assembly in Caracas, Venezuela, on Jan. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)