Vice President JD Vance Issues Blunt Response to Livestreamed Execution, Reveals If He’ll Watch

Vice President JD Vance says he will not be among those watching the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, October 9, Vance, 42, was asked about Pentagon confirmation that Hasan’s firing squad execution will be livestreamed on December 3. Hasan, 56, was convicted in 2013 of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in the 2009 shooting at Fort Hood.

The vice president’s stance comes with a personal backdrop. Vance was baptized and entered the Catholic Church in 2019, and the church strongly opposes capital punishment. Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement that he felt “shock and great sorrow” over the livestream decision.

“In no way can Hasan’s actions be condoned, but this decision is a barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered,” Coakley, 71, said, warning it would “only further undermine the moral fabric of our nation.”

Still, Vance’s decision to look away doesn’t signal a break with the administration. The execution would be the first carried out by the U.S. military since April 13, 1961, and Vance and President Donald Trump have both pushed for more executions in federal death penalty cases. Vance also defended using a firing squad for the former Army psychiatrist.

“Whatever the controversy is about the method of the execution, I hope that people don’t forget that this is a guy who brutally murdered a lot of innocent people,” he told reporters.