Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing accusations that his proposal to livestream the execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan would violate international law, with critics comparing the idea to ISIS propaganda.
The United Nations human rights office said Friday that televising the death would effectively amount to a public execution and violate the absolute ban on torture.
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy made the comparison even more directly during a live broadcast, asking: “What is he mimicking? ISIS executions.”
The criticism was not limited to Democrats. Republican Senator Thom Tillis said public executions are associated with “oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan.”
“It should not be happening in America,” the North Carolina Republican wrote on X late Thursday, describing the decision to stream the execution as “beyond disgusting.”
Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff told MS Now that Hegseth was “a deeply unwell person who seems to relish this kind of brutality.”
Hegseth disclosed the plan during a Thursday interview with conservative influencer Jack Posobiec for Real America’s Voice, speaking from the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln.
“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public,” Hegseth said, arguing that the public needed to see that “there’s serious consequences for these types of things.”
The UN human rights office said Friday that televising the killing would effectively be a public execution and violate the absolute prohibition on torture.
Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, killed 12 soldiers and one civilian at the Texas military base on November 5, 2009, in the deadliest attack ever carried out at a US military installation.
Hegseth’s position within Trump’s inner circle has strengthened in recent months, partly because he was among the few cabinet officials to support launching the war with Iran in its early stages.
Hasan, who previously served as an Army psychiatrist, was convicted of killing 12 soldiers and one civilian at Fort Hood on November 5, 2009. The attack remains the deadliest ever carried out on a US military base.
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The Pentagon said Monday that Hegseth had recommended the punishment and that Donald Trump approved Hasan’s execution by Army firing squad. It would be the first US military execution since 1961.
Murphy said CNN anchor Erin Burnett informed him of the livestream proposal during Thursday night’s broadcast, telling viewers he was hearing about it for the first time.
“I understand that in this country we have the death penalty, but public executions are medieval,” Murphy said, calling them one of the practices people condemn terrorist organizations for carrying out.
Tillis said Hasan should receive the death penalty, but argued that the punishment should not be turned into a public event.
Ossoff accused Hegseth of creating an “obscene medieval spectacle” while leading what he described as a Defense Department descending into chaos.
“The guy cannot run the military competently,” Ossoff said.
The War Secretary has also faced sustained criticism over his handling of the Iran conflict, particularly after Tehran succeeded in halting shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial route for roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil.
Despite the controversy, Hegseth’s influence within Trump’s inner circle has continued to increase. He was one of the administration’s few cabinet members to support military action against Iran at the outset of the conflict.
The War Secretary has faced months of criticism over his handling of the Iran war after Tehran managed to shut down traffic through the Strait of Hormuz
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that public executions ‘constitute a form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,’ the same stance it has taken on Iran and Afghanistan.
Hasan, who was paralyzed when he was shot by police during the rampage, was convicted on 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder in 2013.
Army rules require the sentence to be carried out within 150 days of the president’s approval.