Former Secretary of State and former First Lady Hillary Clinton on Friday issued a blunt rebuke of the Pentagon’s plan to carry out the execution of the Fort Hood shooter in public and stream it live. She called it “a barbaric idea, beneath our dignity as a country” and urged Americans to resist it. Her post on X landed one day after the Pentagon confirmed that the firing squad execution of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, set for Dec. 3, would be broadcast, a step with almost no precedent in modern American history. It also puts Clinton on a collision course with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has championed both the execution and its public nature.
The Post
Clinton published her statement at 9:00 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. The full text of her post read:
“A barbaric idea, beneath our dignity as a country.
Push back on this.”
She attached a New York Times article reporting that the Pentagon would carry out the execution of Hasan in public and livestream it. The post gave no further explanation, but its wording was unambiguous: Clinton called the plan “barbaric,” said it falls below the country’s standards, and told her followers to oppose it.
What the Pentagon Announced
Pentagon officials said Thursday that Hasan would be executed in public, a practice that ended in the United States nearly a century ago and is now most commonly carried out in a handful of countries, including Iran, North Korea and Afghanistan. The Pentagon later said in a statement that the execution would also be broadcast by livestream. Releasing video of executions is most often associated with extremist militant groups such as the Islamic State.
The Army has said the execution will be carried out by firing squad at Fort Hood, Texas, the site of the 2009 shooting. If it proceeds, it would be the first military execution since 1961, and Hasan would be the first soldier put to death by firing squad since World War II.
Hegseth’s Words
Hegseth announced the plan in an interview aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. “We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public,” he said. He said the execution would be public “because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things.” Asked whether Hasan had made any final requests or contacted the administration, Hegseth replied: “Don’t care.”
Hegseth also said the details of the execution were chosen for their symbolism. “Of course we’re going to do it at Fort Hood,” he said. “And do it on a Thursday and we’re going to do it at 1 o’clock — which is when he did it — and it’s going to be soldiers with rifles executing the firing squad. It hadn’t been since World War II since we’ve done that.” He continued, “Well I kind of like the mentality we had in World War II.”
The Path to the Execution Date
The Pentagon announced Monday evening that President Donald Trump had approved Hasan’s execution by firing squad on a recommendation from Hegseth. Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle set the date for Dec. 3 at 1 p.m. Central time. Hegseth had pushed for the execution for much of his tenure. In September 2025 he said, “I am 100 percent committed to ensuring the death penalty is carried out for Nidal Hasan,” and he called for the “harshest lawful punishment.” Hasan lost his final appeal in April 2025 and is one of four people on military death row.
At a rally in San Antonio on Wednesday, Trump said “we are going to deliver final justice to an evil killer.”
The Crime Behind the Sentence
On Nov. 5, 2009, Hasan, an Army psychiatrist stationed at Fort Hood, brought a personal handgun onto the base and opened fire, killing 13 people and wounding 32. It remains the deadliest shooting at an American military base. Hasan said he carried out the attack to wage jihad over what he called the illegal and immoral wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He admitted to the shootings during his court-martial and was convicted in 2013 of 45 counts of premeditated murder and attempted premeditated murder. He is held at the military death row prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and told a military mental health panel he wished he had died in the attack so that he could have become a martyr.
A Rare Break in Both Parties
Clinton’s criticism was echoed on both sides of the aisle. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., wrote on X that he supports Hasan’s death sentence but called a livestream “beyond disgusting.” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said she expects such a decision from “terrorists and dictators, but not here in America.” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., asked whether Hegseth is “mimicking ISIS executions” and called public executions “medieval” regardless of one’s view of the death penalty.
Not all Republicans objected. Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee wrote that “public execution is what this terrorist deserves.”
Military Voices and Wider Condemnation
Sean MacFarland, who commanded Fort Hood and approved Hasan’s death sentence, called the livestream a “terrible idea.” The United Nations has also condemned the plan, saying a livestreamed execution would breach international law.
Hasan could resist the execution by filing a habeas petition in civilian court, which experts say could significantly delay it.
Where the White House Stands
Asked Friday whether the execution would be livestreamed, Trump said, “we’ll be making a determination on that.” Vice President JD Vance told reporters, “I don’t know that that’s actually going to happen.” The comments suggest the administration has not settled on how the execution will be shown to the public, even after the Pentagon’s Thursday statement.
The Last Time America Did This
The last state-sanctioned public execution in the United States took place more than 90 years ago in Owensboro, Kentucky. About 20,000 people gathered in August 1936 to watch the hanging of Rainey Bethea, a young Black man convicted of raping an elderly white woman. No legal execution in the United States has ever been livestreamed.
Clinton’s Record on the Death Penalty
Clinton has long said she supports capital punishment in limited circumstances. At a New Hampshire campaign event in October 2015, she said: “We have a lot of evidence now that the death penalty has been too frequently applied, and too often in a discriminatory way, so I think we have to take a hard look at it.” She added, “I do not favor abolishing it, however, because I do think there are certain egregious cases that still deserve the consideration of the death penalty, but I’d like to see those be very limited and rare, as opposed to what we’ve seen in most states.”
At a March 2016 town hall, after being confronted by a man who had spent 39 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, she said she would “breathe a sigh of relief if either the Supreme Court or the states, themselves, began to eliminate the death penalty.”
Her latest post does not address whether Hasan should be executed. It objects to the public and livestreamed nature of the proceeding.
A History With Hegseth
Clinton and Hegseth have clashed publicly before. In March 2025 she posted that the Pentagon’s reported cyber stand-down on Russia operations meant the administration “wouldn’t want to hurt Putin’s feelings,” and Hegseth answered by posting a photo of her 2009 “reset” button event with Russia. After Hegseth’s use of a Signal group chat to discuss military strike plans became public, Clinton said “the hypocrisy is staggering, but worse, the arrogance and incompetence puts the lives of our military men and women in danger.”
What Comes Next
The Pentagon has not said where the livestream would be hosted or whether the public could attend in person. Army regulations allow for at least two media outlets to be present at an execution. A legal challenge from Hasan, a final decision from the White House on streaming, or continued pressure from lawmakers could still change the plans.