Kelly calls to remove Hegseth ‘immediately’ over public execution plan

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) called on the Trump administration to remove Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from his post “immediately” over the Pentagon chief’s plan to livestream the military execution of former Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, the convicted Fort Hood shooter.

Kelly argued the government publicizing Hasan’s death by firing squad is akin to U.S. adversaries’ public execution practices, namely those of Iran and the Taliban. He went on to say the administration should be “delivering for the American people,” not “glorifying violence.”

Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people on a Texas military base in 2009. He is set to be put to death on Dec. 3 — the first military execution in more than 60 years.

“There is no doubt that Nidal Hasan is a murderer who took the lives of 13 people and injured dozens. He should face justice for that. But a public execution? Here in the United States?” Kelly wrote in a Friday post on social platform X.

Kelly — who has called for Hegseth’s resignation before — said the livestream plan, along with the Pentagon chief’s “maximum lethality” campaign, further justified his removal.

The Arizona Democrat, a retired Navy captain, is suing the Pentagon for censuring him and moving to lower his retirement rank over his participation in a video that reminded troops they must refuse illegal orders. Defense officials argued Kelly was urging service members to defy lawful directives and thus violating military rules, justifying the punishment.

But criticism of the plans for Hasan’s execution reached both sides of the political aisle. Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) drew comparisons between Hegseth’s announcement and the fall of the Roman Empire, saying, “A civilization erodes when it cultivates an appetite for executions as a form of entertainment.”

“Secretary Hegseth’s plan to livestream the Fort Hood execution risks feeding that appetite,” Curtis wrote in an X post. “The victims deserve justice administered with solemnity. Broadcasting a death diminishes us and is not an effective deterrent. I urge him to reconsider.”

Another GOP senator, Thom Tillis (N.C.), called the execution plan “beyond disgusting,” while Sen. Chris Murphy (D-N.Y.) suggested Hegseth could be mimicking ISIS-style killings. Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, also weighed in, calling the publicization of capital punishment a “barbaric promotion of a culture of death.”

Kelly concluded his denouncement with a quote from former President Reagan, a Republican, which he argued exemplifies why public executions do not fit within the U.S.’s character “at our best.”

“As President Ronald Reagan said ‘compassion, vision, and a fundamental sense of decency are the hallmarks of our national character.’ That is not what we’ve seen from this President and his administration,” Kelly said. “We need to find that again.”