Fort Hood Victim’s Daughter Condemns Plan to Livestream Execution

The daughter of Michael Cahill, one of the 13 people killed in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, has condemned the Trump administration’s reported plan to livestream the execution of convicted gunman Nidal Malik Hasan, who is wheelchair-bound.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday that President Donald Trump had approved his proposal to execute Hasan by firing squad during a public broadcast. Hasan received a death sentence for the deadly attack.

Keely Cahill Vanacker, whose father was among those killed, criticized the proposal during an interview with CNN on Monday.

“I think that is absolutely the worst thing that you can do,” Vanacker said. “I think this has nothing to do with justice.”

She said she first learned that Hasan’s execution could be staged publicly from her son, who had seen the news in an Instagram reel.

Vanacker warned that broadcasting the death penalty could turn a painful chapter into a form of online spectacle. “This is becoming a tragedy turning into entertainment,” she said, adding that social media could make the footage “horrific” and allow it to spread widely.

Cahill was a husband and father of three. His daughter said a public execution would not provide comfort to her family or to the relatives of the other victims.

“This does not bring anyone’s family back,” she said. “Livestreaming isn’t closure for any of us.”

Vanacker said she could not represent every victim’s family, but added that the relatives she had spoken with were surprised and disturbed by the livestreaming proposal.

“Several of those that I’ve talked to — those who are prepared and ready and want this execution for their closure — livestreaming is just something that is not even on their radar of what they think is okay,” she said. “This is just a really horrible reaction and a way to handle the situation.”

She also said that neither the administration nor the Pentagon had contacted her family about the execution, despite the communication that prosecutors typically maintain with relatives before an execution.

The planned broadcast has triggered intense backlash, with some Republicans joining critics who say the proposed handling of Hasan’s execution is dehumanizing and more suited to a dystopian spectacle than a justice process.

Trump initially supported the idea of showing the execution publicly, saying Hasan “deserves it.” However, the president said Saturday that he had not yet reached a final decision about whether the death would be livestreamed.

“There are two thoughts: don’t show it and show it,” Trump said. “By showing it, maybe other people won’t be doing what he did. So I’ll make a decision ultimately. I know what the military would like to do, but I’ll make a decision.”

Trump called Hasan a “vicious killer,” recalling that the former Army major killed 13 people and wounded 20 others during the Fort Hood attack.

“Some of those people will never have their lives back in a true sense,” the president said.

Hasan had been convicted in 2013 of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder for the killings. 

He told officers that he was targeting soldiers deploying to Afghanistan because they were ‘going to engage in an illegal war.’ 

Hasan descended on a medical processing center at Fort Hood and followed soldiers out the back door before exchanging gunfire with police, becoming paralyzed in the process. 

He is now scheduled to die by firing squad on December 3.

Hegseth then unveiled his plan for a public execution during an interview on Jack Posobiec’s podcast, arguing that it would be public ‘because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things.’ 

The Defense Secretary added that the execution by firing squad was a return to tactics used by the US Army in World War II. 

He said he liked ‘the mentality we had in World War II, which was win. Which was understand when the enemy attacks you, you stand your ground.’ 

Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, swiftly hit out at Hegseth for proposing the idea, urging the Pentagon on Friday to reverse the ‘gruesome decision’ and saying there is ‘no need to livestream any execution, including this one.

‘I would expect this from terrorists and dictators, but not here in America,’ she posted on X, arguing a livestreamed execution ‘would give this individual, who deserves no further notoriety, the martyrdom he seeks.’

Republican Senator Thom Tillis further declared that public executions are ‘what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do.’

‘It should not be happening in America,’ the North Carolina senator wrote on X, adding that streaming the death was ‘beyond disgusting.’

GOP Senator Kevin Cramer, of North Dakota, also expressed his concerns that the livestream could fuel further radicalization.

The UN human rights office also declared on Friday that broadcasting the killing ‘is tantamount to a public execution and would breach the absolute prohibition of torture.’

Meanwhile, Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff told MS Now that the Defense Secretary is ‘a deeply unwell person who seems to relish this kind of brutality.’

He accused Hegseth of staging an ‘obscene medieval spectacle’ while ‘running a department that is falling into chaos.’

‘The guy cannot run the military competently,’ Ossoff added.