Why did Trump ban the Fort Hood execution livestream?

Well, U.S. President Donald Trump says that the Pentagon will not live stream the firing squad execution of a convicted military base shooter. Now, the execution of Nidal Hasan, who gunned down 13 people at Texas' Fort Hood back in 2009, is set for December. Trump canceled the planned live stream after bipartisan criticism and after Vice President J.D. Vance said that he would not watch it. Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the former Army major's execution would be made public. The Department of Defense confirmed that it would be live streamed. No other country is known to live stream judicial executions. All right, I want to go now to our correspondent, Benjamin Alvarez Gruber. He's on this story for us. Benjamin, the president now says that only immediate families or relatives of Hassan's victims will be allowed to watch the execution in person. Why this reversal? So there was, as you just mentioned, a huge criticism, not only from military, from former military, but also bipartisan criticism, pushback against this plan that was announced by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. But you mentioned that J.D. Vance, the vice president, was asked, and he said, I would rather not watch it. So there were many questions surrounding this planned livestream of this execution set for the start of December. Indeed, it shows that there was not a collective or thought approach by this administration. They waited for a couple of days, but now we got this announcement, a lengthy social media post by President Trump. And indeed, the executions here in this country, there is a very tight entry requirement to actually see those executions. So close family members, journalists, witnesses. And there was fear that this might have unintended consequences, that they might lead other people to actually commit several of these crimes. several or be kind of inspired also by this attack in Texas that you mentioned there or that he might even look as a martyr with those pictures and those videos basically being streamed worldwide on Wednesday we saw dozens of retired admirals and generals publish an open letter opposing the plan to live stream this execution and they wrote that the live streaming and i'm quoting here turns what should be the solemn and grave punishment of a member of our society for committing the most serious crimes into a carnival for the enjoyment of voyeurs and spectators. How significant, Benjamin, is this pushback against the president and his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth? It is very significant to have members, former members of the military, 72 retired generals, admirals, military officers, sending this letter for the Pentagon is very significant they called this live stream the idea and i quote a barbaric abuse of authority that would also turn this mass killer into a martyr and also the fact that they are active military members that were already seeking an exemption from participating in this execution show that they were against the idea from the beginning, once it was actually mentioned by Defense Secretary Pete Texas. What is important here that we also need to mention, they are not against the capital punishment in this case, against the conviction, but they just were concerned about what image this would project, not just for the United States, also for the military that will conduct this execution in early December, but also that there might be others inspired and there might be additional attacks on US citizens. So it's very remarkable not only that they decided to make this publicly to voice their concerns and that adds up to the criticism, bipartisan criticism, from both Democrats and Republicans once this plan was announced by Texas. And Benjamin, the fact that a live streamed execution was even considered, what does that tell us then about the notion of justice and punishment within the halls of power in the United States? So I think we need to be careful to not over generalize by this idea. We don't know how many people came up with this. Secretary Hegseth said this during an interview with the U.S. media. This has never happened before. We don't know where this idea came from. And by getting these immediate reactions, I think Vice President J.D. Vance commented on it briefly after this idea was first announced, but it shows this debate that happened afterwards, show that there are mixed reactions, not only to the live streaming, but also of the idea of the death penalty itself. There are concerns, transparency, accountability also on the public, and it shows when we look at the United States that these discussions are happening, not only about the fact that this idea of the live stream that has now been cancelled by the US president, but the fact, what does it actually make of a society that has a death penalty in place? Yeah. DW's Benjamin Alvarez Gruber with the latest tonight from Washington. Benjamin, as always, thank you.