Army Staff Sgt. Paul Martin (ret.) remembers the day vividly. It was November 5, 2009 when Major Nidal Hasan jumped on a table and opened fire inside a soldier readiness center at Fort Hood in Texas, killing 13 people and wounding 32 as he shouted “Allahu Akbar.” Martin was in the room where it happened and can recall how blood was running down his arm after being shot four times by Hasan. Despite the intense trauma he endured, Martin is adamantly opposed to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plan to livestream Hasan’s execution by firing squad on December 3rd.
“I don’t understand how that’s going to help my healing,” Martin says in a video released by VoteVets, a progressive advocacy group for military veterans, and obtained by “The Jim Acosta Show.“
Martin, who was awarded the Purple Heart for the injuries he sustained during the Fort Hood mass shooting, said he and other victims from the massacre were not contacted by Pentagon officials before a Hegseth spokesman announced the Defense Department’s live execution proposal last week.
“I was like, ‘oh my God this is just crazy.’ They just did it without asking us. We didn’t have no decision on it,” Martin said in the video. “It makes us no more than a third-world country. One of those other countries or the cartels that cuts people’s heads off.”
Over the weekend, President Trump suggested the decision to stage a live execution was not final, telling reporters he would make the call on whether to broadcast Hasan’s death.
“There are two thoughts: don’t show it and show it,” Trump said. “So I’ll make a decision ultimately. I know what the military would like to do, but I’ll make a decision.”
Critics from both parties have blasted Hegseth’s execution plans as barbaric and inconsistent with American values. House Speaker Mike Johnson, an ardent Trump loyalist who rarely breaks with the president, told CBS News he has doubts about live-streaming the execution.
“There are colleagues who have concerns,” Johnson said, adding the video could be used as “a recruiting tool for future terrorists.”
Administration officials including Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin brushed off those concerns.
“I think people need to understand that if you attack America, we will come after you, and we will make sure that the punishment fits the crime,” Mullin said on CBS’s Face the Nation.
Martin disagrees and said a live-streamed execution could set back the recovery process that still continues for the survivors, 17 years later.
“I don’t want to be part of a clown show,” Martin continued. “My message to Pete Hegseth is that this is not a sporting event.”
Paul Martin’s message can be viewed here:
This vile spectacle needs to be quashed! tRump and his gaggle of idiotic goons need to be in jail. Today is the first day of early voting in GA. I'll be at the Supervisor of Elections Office at 0900 to tell tRump and the MAGA people just what I think of them!
Does the perpetrator deserve the death penalty for his crime? In my opinion, yes. Should it be streamed like some third-world country? Absolutely not! While Trump and Hegseth believe this is a show of force and their law-and-order agenda, it is quite the opposite. They are sinking into the depths of darkness and are too ignorant to know it. That unfortunately is our President and Secretary of Defense. This was the country that was the shining light on a hill. Doing this will diminish that light thanks to both of them.