Execution livestream reversal | Dallas News Live

Do you guys remember us telling you about the scheduled execution of Nadal Hassan? He's the man who killed multiple people at Fort Hood. Earlier this month, the Pentagon said that his execution, which happens to be by firing squad, would be live streamed. It's something President Trump and others supported. But this morning, the president changed his stance. I talked to SMU political scientist Matthew Wilson about the optics of this heavily debated topic. The news today, President Trump saying, while we wanted to show this as a deterrent, we're now not gonna livestream it. What do you think went into the president backtracking because he was supportive of this not too long ago? Well, I think there were a few things going on. First of all, he got a lot of pushback from religious leaders, including religious leaders and people who normally are inclined to support him on a lot of questions. There was real revulsion from a lot of Catholic leaders about this and of course the Catholic Church is generally opposed to the death penalty. But also even some evangelical Protestant figures who are supportive of the death penalty in principle thought that this was a bad look and a bad choice to have this kind of public execution. Also members of his own administration expressed reservations about this. We saw J.D. Vance saying, yeah, I'm not sure this is actually going to happen. And if it does happen, I don't plan to watch it. That's about as strong a signal of reservation as you're going to get from the president's own vice president. House Speaker Mike Johnson also expressed reservations about this. So I think that chorus of voices, including from people who are otherwise not Trump critics, I think swayed his opinion and resulted in him backing away from this. A big voice nationally and here in North Texas, Robert Jeffers of First Baptist, Dallas. I mean, he was supportive of this. And I know he may have been in the minority of this, but there were some who were supportive of it. We don't deal with executions on the military side often, the last one happening in 1961. But the fact that this is a topic, what does that say about our politics and where we are right now in this moment, Matt? Well, it shows like so many things in our politics that there's a lot of anger, a lot of polarization. And people are understandably angry about the heinous crime that Nidal Hassan committed. I don't think there's any debate or dispute about that. And I think if you took a poll among people simply saying, should he be executed or not? Most Americans probably agree that he should. However, a lot of people who agree that he should be executed feel a little uncomfortable about the idea of a live stream. Who will be watching this? What use will be made of this? What will it make America look like abroad? Will kids watch this? There are a lot of different concerns surrounding the live streamed execution of a paraplegic. And I think that that prevailed on some cooler heads in the Trump administration and ultimately on the president himself. And victims families just like any other type of execution, they are able to attend if they want to attend that. It just now the news today that it won't be live streamed. And Matt, before I let you go, with everything being political with us going into this midterm election, right? I mean, I would assume there's no polling on this, but is this one of those topics where someone got in the presidency and was like, we don't need this type of press heading into November, or are they completely opposite situations, topics? I mean, I think the midterms certainly play a role here. You don't need anything at this juncture that creates divisions among Republicans. And this was an issue that was creating divisions among Republicans, and pretty clearly even divisions within the president's own administration about whether this was a good idea or not. So certainly, if you have an issue that is splitting the base, it's time to put that aside and not have that be the focus in these final weeks going into the midterm voting. to me political scientist Matthew Olsen, thank you for your time.