Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesThe US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) chief has defended a plan to livestream the execution of convicted killer Nidal Hasan, rejecting claims that it could fuel radicalisation or make him a martyr.
“I don’t see an elevated risk,” Markwayne Mullin said on Sunday. “I think people need to understand that if you attack America, we will come after you, and we will make sure that the punishment fits the crime.”
Hasan, a former US Army Major, is due to be executed by firing squad in December for shooting dead 13 soldiers at the Fort Hood military base in Texas.
The Trump administration has said it plans to livestream his death, prompting shock and concern from both Republicans and Democrats.
It would be the first public execution in the US in almost a century.
The plan, which was announced by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth last week, has been heavily criticised by politicians, academics and experts.
Alaskan Republican Senator, Lisa Murkowski, called the decision “gruesome” and said livestreaming an execution was something she would expect “from terrorists and dictators, but not here in America”.
“It would give this individual, who deserves no further notoriety, the martyrdom he seeks,” she wrote on X, adding that “how we carry out justice matters just as much as the justice itself.”
Virginia Democrat Mark Warner said that allowing the public to tune into the execution could heighten the national security risk.
“Beyond the profound moral concerns, a public execution could hand terrorist organizations a propaganda victory, fuel radicalization, and put American service members, diplomats, and citizens overseas at greater risk,” he wrote.
But speaking to CBS news programme Face the Nation on Sunday, the DHS secretary rejected these concerns, and insisted the risks had been considered.
“[Hasan] killed 13 individuals on Fort Hood. I have no sympathy for him, and I give absolutely zero thought to the way that this man dies,” Mullin told presenter Margaret Brennan.
Nidal Hasan, a former US Army major and psychiatrist from Virginia, admitted to fatally shooting 13 unarmed troops at a crowded medical building at the Fort Hood military base. A further 32 others were injured in the attack.
In court, Hasan apologised for “any mistakes” and said he believed he was protecting Muslims and the Taliban in Afghanistan from the US military. Hasan was shot during the attack and now uses a wheelchair.
His execution would be the first by the US military since 1961, and the military’s first execution by firing squad since World War Two.
