The Pentagon revealed exactly how the public will be able to witness an upcoming military execution, and critics were horrified.
The Defense Department said in a statement on Thursday that the December 3 firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people in a 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, will be livestreamed, The Washington Post reported.
The announcement came hours after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in an interview with Jack Posobiec on Real America's Voice that he wanted people to be able to watch Hasan's death.
"People need to understand that there's serious consequences for these types of things," Hegseth said, calling the firing squad idea a "no-brainer."
If carried out, Hasan's execution would be the military's first since 1961 and its first by firing squad since 1945, according to Death Penalty Information Center figures cited by the Post.
Hasan was convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to death in 2013. President Donald Trump signed off on the firing squad earlier this week.
The plan drew swift outrage online.
"Disgusting," wrote former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance in a post on X.
"Oh my god," reacted disinformation researcher Caroline Orr Bueno, adding, "This is insane."
Podcaster Krystal Ball, the co-host of "Breaking Points," called the plan a "government backed snuff film. Dark."
Amy McGrath, a retired Marine fighter pilot and former Senate candidate in Kentucky, wrote, "Televising an execution seems pretty sick to me. We are America. We don't need to do this."
"Jesus Christ, I didn't think we'd actually get to the 'public executions' stage of Trump's project to roll back the last 100 years of societal development," lamented immigration policy analyst Aaron Reichlin-Melnick.
"Even as someone who nominally supports capital punishment, this is disgusting and abhorrent," admitted weapons and defense analyst John Ridge. "Not even China televises executions. This will place the United States in the company of North Korea, Iran, and ISIS."