The daughter of a Fort Hood terror attack victim condemned Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s plan to livestream the shooter’s execution, saying the spectacle has nothing to do with justice.
Keely Cahill Vanacker went public after learning of the plan from her son through an Instagram reel, and she did not soften her words.
In a Monday interview, she said broadcasting the death of Nidal Malik Hasan would turn a family tragedy into entertainment and would not close anything for the people left behind. Hasan murdered her father, Michael Cahill, and 12 others at Fort Hood near Killeen, Texas, on Nov. 5, 2009.
Hegseth announced the livestream during a Thursday podcast interview with Jack Posobiec. The former Army major’s execution by firing squad is set to be broadcast live on Dec. 3. Hegseth framed the method as a return to U.S. Army tactics from the Second World War and said that when the enemy attacks, you stand your ground.
Vanacker drew a hard line between lawful punishment and a public show.
"I think that is absolutely the worst thing you could do. I think that this has nothing to do with justice,"
she said. She added that social media would make the images impossible to escape.
"I can’t imagine, with social media, how horrific it would be and how widespread it would be. It is not something you could just get away from,"
Vanacker said. She was plain about what a camera feed cannot do.
"This does not bring anyone’s family back. Livestreaming isn’t closure for any of us."
Hasan opened fire at a medical processing center on the base. He killed 13 people and wounded more than 20 others before responding police shot him. The wounds left him paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair.
He told officers he targeted U.S. soldiers deploying to Afghanistan because they were “going to engage in an illegal war.” He described himself as waging “jihad” against the United States. In 2013 he was convicted of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder.
That record is why many families have long wanted the sentence carried out. Vanacker’s objection was not to the punishment. It was to turning the final act into a feed.
The New York Post reported her warning that officials were treating a livestream as acceptable when it should never have been on the table.
"Livestreaming is just something that is not even on the radar that they think is ok. This is just a really horrible reaction and a way to handle this situation."
Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska moved first. On Friday she called on the Pentagon to reverse what she labeled a “gruesome decision.” On X she wrote that she would expect this from terrorists and dictators, “but not here in America.” She warned a livestream would hand Hasan “the martyrdom” he wanted.
Sen. Thom Tillis called a livestreamed execution “beyond disgusting.” He said such acts are “what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do.”
Those rebukes came from inside the GOP, not from Hasan’s defenders. The fight is over method and message, not over whether a convicted mass killer earned a death sentence.
President Trump initially backed the concept. By Saturday he said he had not made up his mind on a public execution.
"I know what the military would like to do, but I’ll make a decision,"
Trump said. The final call sits with him.
Hegseth’s announcement put a date and a camera on a case that has already stretched from 2009 to a planned Dec. 3 firing squad. Vanacker’s message was that victims’ families do not need a viral death to know what Hasan did, or what he is owed under the law.
Justice for the Fort Hood dead means the sentence is carried out with seriousness, not turned into content for strangers with phones.
