Keely Cahill Vanacker, whose father died in the 2009 Fort Hood massacre, denounced a plan to livestream Nidal Malik Hasan's execution as turning tragedy into entertainment with no connection to justice.
Vanacker told CNN on Monday that the proposal has nothing to do with accountability for the man who murdered her father and 12 others. She learned of the idea from her son after he saw an Instagram reel, and said no one from the administration or the Pentagon had contacted her family.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Thursday that President Trump had approved his proposal for a public firing-squad execution of Hasan broadcast live. Hasan is scheduled to die on December 3. Trump said Saturday he had not made a final decision on whether to livestream it.
Daily Mail reporting captured Vanacker's blunt assessment of the plan.
"I think that is absolutely the worst thing that you can do. I think this has nothing to do with justice."
She added that livestreaming turns the families' loss into content for social media.
"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."
Vanacker made clear the broadcast would not heal anyone. "This does not bring anyone's family back. Livestreaming isn't closure for any of us," she said. Other families she spoke with who want the execution for closure still reject putting it online.
Hasan, a former Army major, opened fire at a medical processing center at Fort Hood in 2009. He killed 13 people and wounded 20 more. He told officers he targeted soldiers heading to Afghanistan because they were "going to engage in an illegal war." He exchanged gunfire with police, was left paralyzed, and was convicted in 2013 of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder. He received a death sentence.
Michael Cahill, Vanacker's father, was among the dead. He left behind a wife and three children.
Hegseth unveiled the public-execution idea on Jack Posobiec's podcast. He argued people need to understand serious consequences for these attacks and praised the World War II mentality of standing ground when the enemy strikes.
Trump called Hasan a "vicious killer" who murdered 13 "in cold blood" and wounded 20. He noted some victims will never fully recover their lives. On the livestream question he laid out two options.
"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."
The president's caution leaves the broadcast element open even as the firing-squad date stands.
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski urged the Pentagon on Friday to reverse what she called a gruesome decision. She said there is no need to livestream any execution and warned it would hand Hasan the martyrdom he seeks. "I would expect this from terrorists and dictators, but not here in America," she wrote.
North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis said public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do. He called streaming the death beyond disgusting and said it should not happen in America. North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer raised separate concerns that a livestream could fuel further radicalization.
Those GOP objections arrive amid wider friction around the Defense Secretary, including cases where Sen. John Kennedy stops short of backing Pete Hegseth on other fronts.
Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff went further, calling Hegseth a deeply unwell person who seems to relish this kind of brutality and accusing him of staging an obscene medieval spectacle while the department falls into chaos. The UN human rights office claimed Friday that broadcasting the killing is tantamount to a public execution and would breach the absolute prohibition of torture.
International-law complaints of that sort have already drawn coverage as Hegseth faces international law claims over Fort Hood killer livestream plan.
The New York Post detailed Vanacker's core objection that the plan has nothing to do with justice and that livestreaming offers no closure.
Prosecutors typically reach out to families before an execution. Vanacker said that contact never came from the administration or the Pentagon. She and relatives who are prepared for the death sentence still draw a hard line at turning it into a broadcast event.
Political pressure on Hegseth has taken other forms as well, from a surprise move when Massie blindsides GOP with impeachment push against Defense Secretary Hegseth to separate Senate resistance on personnel matters.
Hasan's crime was premeditated mass murder of American soldiers on their own base. The death sentence matches the scale of that attack. The open question is whether a live feed serves deterrence or simply hands a terrorist one more platform.
Vanacker and the families she spoke with want the sentence carried out without the social-media circus. Their demand is straightforward: finish the justice that was ordered, and spare the victims' relatives a second round of public trauma.
After years of delay, the country owes the Fort Hood dead a clean accounting, not a spectacle that confuses punishment with performance.
