The daughter of a Fort Hood shooting victim has condemned the Trump administration’s decision to livestream the public execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, who is confined to a wheelchair.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday that President Donald Trump had approved his proposal to broadcast Hasan’s execution by firing squad. Hasan was sentenced to death for the 2009 attack.
Keely Cahill Vanacker’s father, Michael Cahill, was among the 13 people killed in the shooting. Speaking to CNN on Monday, she denounced Hegseth’s plan.
“I think that is absolutely the worst thing that you can do. I think this has nothing to do with justice,” Vanacker said.
Vanacker said she first learned that her father’s killer could face a public execution from her son, who had seen the news in an Instagram reel.
“This is becoming a tragedy turning into entertainment. And I can’t imagine with social media how horrific it would be and how widespread it would be,” she said.
Michael Cahill was a husband and father of three. Vanacker said turning Hasan’s execution into a spectacle would not help her family or the other victims’ relatives heal.
“This does not bring anyone’s family back. Livestreaming isn’t closure for any of us,” she said.
The daughter of Fort Hood shooting victim Michael Cahill has criticized the Trump administration’s plan to livestream the public execution of wheelchair-bound killer Nidal Malik Hasan.
The proposal has triggered widespread backlash, including criticism from some Republicans who called the Trump administration’s handling of Nidal Malik Hasan’s execution dystopian and inhumane.
Vanacker acknowledged that she could not speak for every victim’s family, but said the relatives she had contacted viewed the proposal as deeply troubling.
“Several of those that I’ve talked to — like, 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. 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 notification process prosecutors typically follow ahead of an execution.
The proposed broadcast has fueled anger across the political spectrum, with some Republicans joining critics who described the plan as an inhumane and dystopian approach to capital punishment.
Trump initially endorsed the idea of a public execution, saying Hasan “deserves it.” But on Saturday, the president said he had not yet reached a final decision about whether the execution would be livestreamed.
“There are two thoughts: don’t show it and show it. Cause you know, 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 said.
The president called Hasan a “vicious killer,” saying the former Army major murdered 13 people “in cold blood” and wounded 20 others.
“Some of those people will never have their lives back in a true sense,” Trump added.
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Michael Cahill, pictured at top left, was among the 13 people killed by Hasan.
Vanacker said no one from the administration or Pentagon had contacted her family about the execution, a step prosecutors typically take in such cases.
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.
