Full Transcript for Execution TV: Is this a turning point for Trump’s America?

00:00:02 Speaker 1: Execution by firing squad. Army major betrays his country. Radical Islamist kills a bunch of Americans at Fort Hood. Of course we're going to do it at Fort Hood. We're going to do it on a Thursday. We're going to do it at one o'clock, which is when he did it. And it's going to be soldiers with rifles executing the firing squad. 00:00:17 Speaker 2: In 2009, U.S. Army psychiatrist Nadal Hassan opened fire on fellow soldiers and civilians at the Fort Hood military base in Texas, killing 13 people and wounding 32. He was sentenced to death in 2013 for the attack, which he described as an act of jihad. Now, the Trump administration has scheduled his execution by firing squad for December 3rd. And Secretary of War Pete Hegzeth says he wants the public to watch via livestream. 00:00:49 Speaker 1: We know what it is. It was a radical Islamist attack in uniform inside the ranks. And so he's going to get a firing squad of soldiers, as it should be. And we'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public, because people need to understand that there's serious consequences for these. 00:01:04 Speaker 3: Types of things. 00:01:05 Speaker 2: It's the latest example of an administration willing to put its use of deadly force on display, from sharing videos of boats being blown up in the Caribbean to turning military strikes on Iran into social media content. So why is the US so determined to show off its military muscle? I'm Tina Quinn, filling in for Ruby Jones, and you're listening to 7am. Today, journalist and filmmaker Abby Martin on the growing spectacle of American state violence... And what happens when killing becomes something to watch and celebrate? It's Wednesday, October 14. So, Abby, this is the first Death by Firing Squad since World War II, the first to be live-streamed. Even for a country more comfortable with the death penalty than Australia is, it's a lot. 00:02:00 Speaker 4: So.... 00:02:02 Speaker 2: How are Americans reacting to this idea, particularly in the wake of the botched execution of Krista Pike in Tennessee just days ago? 00:02:11 Speaker 3: I mean, you know, as you mentioned, this was a botched execution. This was supposedly the humane clinical way to execute someone. And I think Americans are seeing that the state isn't even capable of doing that. So while Americans are reckoning with something really grotesque and horrifying that happened mere weeks ago, the Pentagon responds by basically saying, we want to make America medieval again. And just go straight to a firing squad akin to, you know, the days of like the Roman Empire. I mean, it's really insane. I mean, I think there's a contingent of Trump cultists who obviously revel in this kind of fascistic mentality. And that's very apparent how common that kind of rhetoric and mentality is. But I think the broad... scope of American society. I think the vast majority of people are absolutely repulsed by this. There's a reason why almost every single country in the world has banned public executions, and the ones that still allow it obviously ban video coverage of it. So there's something really sadistic and depraved about taking it to this level. 00:03:15 Speaker 2: What do you think they're trying to achieve by making this a public event? I mean, Pete Hegseth, he doesn't simply want Nadal Hassan executed. He wants soldiers to do it. at the very same military base where Hassan carried out the attack. And this wanting the public to watch, I mean, what are they trying to achieve here by making this so public and live streaming this, do you think? 00:03:37 Speaker 3: I mean, I think it's the nature of the spectacle itself. It's maximizing the impact of it being a sensational event that is essentially entertainment, wanting to pull people into the darkness that he himself revels in. clearly sending a message to his political enemies, you know, that he's basically deemed anyone who's a leftist, a socialist, an immigrant. I mean, the list goes on and on that this is your warning. This is a threat against you if you don't just bow to the dictates of the Pentagon and these maniacs. 00:04:07 Speaker 2: Trump is still deciding whether to backheg Zeth and make this execution public. But the U.S. does have quite a long history of showing the public images of its enemies being killed, particularly during the war on terror. We saw the Pentagon display the body of al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Sakawi in 2006. And more recently, Donald Trump graphically described the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. 00:04:31 Speaker 1: And he died in a vicious and violent way, running and crying. 00:04:36 Speaker 3: He died like a dog. He died like a coward. 00:04:40 Speaker 2: Does it feel like the U.S. has been moving towards something like this for quite a long time now? 00:04:45 Speaker 3: Yes, I mean, you know, under the war on terror, I feel like this kind of anesthetization of death and brutality has been commonplace. I mean, we've seen it from afar, right? These drone strikes that are published on CENTCOM, essentially snuff videos of people being killed via drone, but there's always this kind of, you know, removal from seeing someone be blown up, from seeing someone be publicly murdered in front of you. There's always this kind of night vision, this realm of, you know, you don't actually see the emotions on someone's face. This is completely different. This is such an insane escalation. We've been watching genocide with Gaza and beyond and this kind of level of impunity around this livestream genocide, that this does seem like some sort of natural culmination once we've allowed the U.S. empire and its collaborator, Israel, to get away with these kind of rapidity and scale and scope of the atrocities that it has been. So why not a public execution? 00:05:41 Speaker 2: It does seem to have changed under Trump, though. I mean, we've seen the White House release footage of its attacks on Iran, mixed with