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Pentagon's 'disgusting' livestreamed execution plan provokes fierce backlash across political divide

Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.

The Pentagon’s plan to livestream the execution of Nidal Hasan, a former army psychiatrist who killed 13 people at Fort Hood, has received fierce criticism from across the political spectrum.

In an interview with Real America’s Voice, defense secretary Pete Hegseth said the firing squad will carry out the sentence at Fort Hood, Texas, at 1pm on Thursday, 3 December. This would be the first US military execution in more than 60 years.

A defense department official later confirmed the execution will be livestreamed, prompting condemnation across the political divide.

Speaking on CNN, Democratic senator Chris Murphy said:

double quotation markI mean, that’s disgusting. What, is he mimicking ISIS executions? I mean, I understand that in this country we have the death penalty, but public execution is medieval. It’s frankly one of the things that we abhor about terrorist groups, and the fact that the United States is doing it - I just learned this.

That is just absolutely extraordinary, galling. No matter whether you support or oppose the death penalty, public hangings and executions? That’s what America has become? Um, that’s, that’s pretty extraordinary.

Republican senator Thom Tillis said public executions were what “oppressive dictators” did. In a social media post, he said:

double quotation markHasan should face the death penalty, but making his execution public and streaming it? Beyond disgusting. Public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do. It should not be happening in America.

Meanwhile, Democratic senator Patty Murray commented:

double quotation markWe can seek justice in this country without glorifying violence and turning an execution into a grotesque public spectacle. What this criminal did was abhorrent and must be punished – but we as a country cannot condone livestreaming a man’s death for entertainment.

We are long past the days of public hangings in the town square. Kids watch what our leaders do and say, is this kind of bloodshed really what we want them seeing? The Pentagon must revoke this decision immediately.

And the Democratic representative Betty McCollum said:

double quotation markSecretary Hegseth’s desire to conduct a public execution is disturbing and should be stopped. The Army has not conducted an execution by firing squad since World War II and the U.S. has not had a public execution since 1936. Nidal Hasan has been found guilty of his crimes and should be held accountable for them but turning a federal execution into a media spectacle is appalling and unbecoming of the U.S. military.

The Pentagon’s announcement also drew backlash from human rights groups, while New Zealand’s national censor said on Friday it would be unable to block the ⁠planned livestreamed execution.

Speaking about the prospect of the execution being livestreamed, Hegseth had said:

double quotation markIt was a radical Islamist attack in uniform inside the ranks, and so he’s going to get a firing squad of soldiers, as it should be, and we’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public, because people need to understand there’s serious consequences for these types of things.

Hasan opened fire at a medical processing center on the Texas base on 5 November 2009, killing 13 people and wounding dozens more. A military jury sentenced him to death in 2013, and he has been held at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas ever since. He exhausted his appeals last year, which cleared the way for Donald Trump to approve the sentence this week on a recommendation from Hegseth.

In other developments:

In a televised Maine Senate debate Democrat Troy Jackson said that, in addition to Brett Kavanaugh, Republican Susan Collins has voted to confirm dozens of anti-abortion judges.

Republican Mike Rogers continually used Islamophobic attacks on Democrat Abdul El-Sayed in a Michigan Senate debate, accusing the Muslim candidate of being “bought off by Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaida”.

Donald Trump claimed that the US will not strike Iran “at any time prior” to the midterm elections on 3 November.