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Hasan firing squad order

News · Heat 1.2 / 10 · 15 shows · 1h 38m airtime

President Trump approved death by firing squad for Nidal Hasan, who murdered 13 people at Fort Hood on November 5, 2009, on the recommendation of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, with the Pentagon announcing the decision on October 5. The Army set the execution for December 3, 2026 at Fort Hood, the military's first in 65 years, and the Pentagon said it would livestream it, a first for a public execution in American history. Trump canceled the livestream on October 16 after Catholic bishops and others objected, with polling showing about 80 percent of Americans opposed. The UN had called the broadcast torture, Al-Qaeda threatened reprisals, and the military archbishop said Catholic soldiers should not serve on the firing squad.

How 15 podcasts covered it

  1. The Megyn Kelly Show, 2026-10-07 (8:06 to 10:46)
    Reports the approved firing squad for Hasan
    Reports the approved firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan, the 2009 Fort Hood shooter, and walks through the attack, the officers who stopped him, and the 177 unfired rounds found on him.
    New angle: Trump approved death by firing squad for Nidal Hasan, the military's first execution in 65 years.
  2. The Megyn Kelly Show, 2026-10-08 (16:04 to 17:47)
    Reports Hasan's December 2026 firing squad date
    Reports the Army's memorandum setting Hasan's execution for December 3, 2026 at Fort Hood by firing squad, and adds his civilian attorney's objection: Hasan was notified without a defense attorney present, as Army regulations require, and Galligan calls the Fort Leavenworth transfer political theater.
    New angle: The Army set Hasan's execution for December 3, 2026 at Fort Hood; his attorney says no defense attorney was present when he was notified.
  3. The Breakfast Club, 2026-10-08 (0:57 to 2:19)
    Explains the sign-off and likely appeals
    Front Page segment on Trump's approval of Nidal Hasan's firing-squad execution, explaining the presidential sign-off required for military death sentences and the federal appeals that could delay it for years.
    New angle: Trump approved Nidal Hasan's execution by firing squad on Hegseth's recommendation.
  4. Global News Podcast, 2026-10-09 (2:08 to 6:47)
    Reports the livestreamed execution plan
    Reports the Pentagon's new announcement that Hasan's firing squad execution will be livestreamed, with Hegseth saying it will be at Fort Hood on a Thursday at 1pm by soldiers with rifles. Politico's Daniel Lipman weighs the deterrent rationale, the appeal risk and the politics.
    New angle: The Pentagon will livestream Hasan's execution, the first live-streamed public execution in American history.
  5. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, 2026-10-09 (0:00 to 2:17)
    Recaps the approved firing squad order
    Hourly crime alert leads with the Pentagon's October 5 announcement that Trump approved Hasan's firing squad execution, then recaps the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, the 2013 death sentence, the 2025 Supreme Court denial and the 1961 precedent.
    New angle: Trump approved the firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan on Hegseth's recommendation, announced by the Pentagon on October 5.
  6. The Headlines, 2026-10-09 (5:57 to 7:21)
    Adds Hegseth's rationale for the livestream
    Adds the Pentagon's stated rationale for the livestream: Hegseth says the execution details were chosen for their symbolism, and the segment frames it as the first state-sanctioned public execution in the U.S. in more than 90 years.
    New angle: Hegseth says the execution details were chosen for their symbolism.
  7. WSJ What's News, 2026-10-09 (2:12 to 2:58)
    Reports the livestreamed firing squad
    Reports the Pentagon's announcement that it will livestream Nidal Hasan's firing squad execution, Hegseth's no-brainer comment, Trump's approval, and the December 3 date at Fort Hood.
    New angle: The Pentagon will livestream Hasan's firing squad execution, set for December 3 at Fort Hood.
  8. The Breakfast Club, 2026-10-09 (5:02 to 7:55)
    Debates broadcasting Hasan's firing squad
    Reports Trump's approval of Nidal Hasan's execution, the December 3 date, Hegseth's public firing-squad plan and Murphy's criticism, then debates whether the government should broadcast it.
    New angle: Trump approved Hasan's execution for December 3, the military's first service-member execution in 65 years.
  9. Global News Podcast, 2026-10-09 (9:37 to 13:03)
    Adds the Yale professor and survivor critics
    Adds the first named critics of the livestream: a Yale Law School visiting professor who says it violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and survivor Sergeant Alonzo Lunsford, who was shot seven times.
    New angle: The UN said livestreaming the execution would amount to torture.
  10. The TMZ Podcast, 2026-10-09 (6:42 to 10:46)
    Reports Hegseth calling for a livestreamed execution
    Picks up the Hasan execution story on the heels of Pike's failed execution: Hegseth's call for a livestream, the December timing, the firing squad, and the first military execution since 1961. The rest is reaction on the spectacle and a slippery-slope argument.
    New angle: Hegseth publicly called for Hasan's execution to be livestreamed, possibly by firing squad, around December.
  11. Morning Wire, 2026-10-09 (8:45 to 9:56)
    Recaps the public firing squad details
    Recaps Hegseth's announcement that the firing squad execution will be public and staged to mirror the attack, at Fort Hood on a Thursday at 1 p.m. It stays inside the details already on the record, adding only the World War II comparison.
  12. Real Time with Bill Maher, 2026-10-10 (20:26 to 23:54)
    Debates the public firing-squad spectacle
    Panel segment on the planned December 3 firing-squad execution of the Fort Hood shooter. Tillis argues the public spectacle is performative; Eisen recounts her trauma from the James Foley beheading video.
    New angle: The Fort Hood shooter is scheduled to be executed by firing squad on December 3, and Hegseth wants it public.
  13. Legal AF by MeidasTouch, 2026-10-11 (54:32 to 1:03:09)
    Opens the Hasan livestream execution story
    Opens a new story: Hegseth's plan to livestream Nidal Hasan's December 3 firing squad execution. Walks the gap between the federal ban on televised executions and the military code, plays Vance and Carr clips, and argues the Eighth and First Amendment exposure.
    New angle: The Code of Military Justice has no ban on publicly televising executions, unlike federal law.
  14. The Dan Bongino Show, 2026-10-12 (23:44 to 30:34)
    Reacts with a Luckey post on public executions
    Roughly ninety seconds inside a broader monologue: the host frames the left as always siding with the wrong team, listing Hasan alongside Maduro and Mangione, and reads a Palmer Luckey post arguing executions should be public and brutal rather than private and medicalized. Reaction, not new reporting.
  15. Science Weekly, 2026-10-13 (1:23 to 2:21)
    Plays officials defending the livestreamed execution
    Opens the episode on the US announcement that Nidal Hasan's execution will be livestreamed, plays officials defending it and clips of international condemnation, then turns to the psychology of why people watch.
    New angle: The US will livestream Nidal Hasan's firing-squad execution, drawing swift international condemnation.
  16. Science Weekly, 2026-10-13 (2:21 to 5:17)
    Cross-checks the deterrence claims against the research
    Lays out the background of the Hasan case and the livestream announcement, then goes to the evidence on deterrence and public viewing: a 2012 National Academy of Sciences panel found no credible deterrent effect, and Amnesty counts only Iran and Afghanistan holding public executions last year.
    New angle: A 2012 National Academy of Sciences panel unanimously found no credible evidence the death penalty deters homicide.
  17. Science Weekly, 2026-10-13 (5:17 to 7:24)
    Adds trauma evidence from execution witnesses
    Brings in mental health experts on the psychology of watching executions: forensic psychologist Simon Duff on suggestive evidence of trauma responses in journalists who witness executions, and historian Rosalind Crone on why England and Wales abolished public hanging in 1868.
    New angle: Studies of journalists who watch executions show suggestive evidence of a trauma response.
  18. Science Weekly, 2026-10-13 (7:12 to 13:57)
    Brings in a psychologist on morbid curiosity
    Brings in psychologist Coltan Scrivner to explain why people will watch the livestream: morbid curiosity, defined as interest in dangerous situations, expressed in four broad areas - violence, the minds of violent people, bodily outcomes, and supernatural dangers. Explanation and framing, not a development in the case.
  19. Science Weekly, 2026-10-13 (15:06 to 18:38)
    Relays advice against watching the livestream
    Relays expert advice not to watch the livestream, warning the administration could read viewing figures as endorsement. The trauma-response study and the morbid-curiosity framing are already on the record; this stays inside the episode's own read.
  20. Pod Save America, 2026-10-13 (48:25 to 54:40)
    Adds Trump's approval and the Al-Qaeda threat
    Adds two developments to the firing-squad story: Trump says he absolutely approved the livestream, while Axios's Mark Caputo reports Trump has privately shared misgivings about it, and Al-Qaeda threatens to kill prisoners in its custody if the execution goes ahead.
    New angle: Al-Qaeda threatened to kill prisoners in its custody if Hasan's execution happens.
  21. Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar, 2026-10-13 (0:04 to 13:59)
    Runs the fallout from the firing squad order
    Runs the political fallout from the livestream order: Vance's and Trump's cold feet, the military archbishop telling Catholic soldiers not to serve on the firing squad, and the Pope intervening against the death penalty. Frames it as Hegseth freelancing, then reaches back to the last French guillotine.
    New angle: The military archbishop said Catholic soldiers should not serve on the firing squad, and the Pope intervened against the death penalty.
  22. Morning Wire, 2026-10-16 (3:04 to 5:27)
    Reports the livestream canceled after bishops objected
    Reports that Trump canceled the livestream of Hasan's execution after backlash from Catholic bishops, citing polling showing about 80 percent of Americans opposed it. The execution itself remains set for December 3 at 1 p.m.
    New angle: Trump canceled the livestream of Hasan's execution after Catholic bishops and others objected.
  23. Morning Wire, 2026-10-16 (5:27 to 7:09)
    Adds the polling and midterm read behind the reversal
    Adds the political read behind the reversal: polling showed about 80 percent of Americans opposed livestreaming the execution, and Vance's quick signal of disinterest is treated as a factor, with the midterms less than three weeks out.
    New angle: Polling showed about 80 percent of Americans did not want the execution livestreamed.
  24. Start Here, 2026-10-16 (10:01 to 17:13)
    Walks through the Army's firing-squad procedure
    Recaps the canceled livestream and the firing-squad plan, then walks through the Army's outdated procedure - how many shooters, how many paces, the train-up - and the criticism that a wheelchair-bound man being shot looks like something a theocracy would do.
  25. The Megyn Kelly Show, 2026-10-16 (12:20 to 15:00)
    Adds Trump's unawareness of Hasan's paralysis
    Adds the reporting behind the cancellation: Trump was unaware Hegseth planned to announce a livestream, and told advisors he had not realized Hasan was paralyzed and in a wheelchair. Also carries the new Washington Post-ABC-Ipsos poll, including 53 percent support for the firing squad itself.
    New angle: Trump told advisors he had not realized Hasan was paralyzed and in a wheelchair.
  26. The Headlines, 2026-10-16 (4:42 to 6:32)
    Adds the retired officers' open letter
    Adds the mechanics of the reversal: dozens of retired admirals and generals signed an open letter saying the broadcast would violate basic human dignity, a former Fort Hood commanding general warned the base could become a retribution target, and two senior officials say Pentagon leaders and the joint staff were relieved.
    New angle: Dozens of retired admirals and generals signed an open letter calling the livestream a violation of human dignity.
Unpacking...