Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr said Friday that he would defer to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on whether television networks could broadcast the planned execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting.

The Pentagon announced that Hasan is scheduled to be executed by firing squad on December 3 at Fort Hood, Texas, and that the execution would be livestreamed. President Donald Trump approved the death sentence following a recommendation from Hegseth. The plan has triggered a debate over whether the execution should be made available to the public and whether television networks should carry the footage.

“Ultimately, we're going to defer to Secretary Hegseth and, you know, his decisions on how to move forward with this,” Carr said during an interview with CNBC. He indicated that he understood the execution would not air on broadcast television, although the Pentagon has not announced whether it intends to restrict networks from carrying the feed.

Carr's comments come as legal experts question whether the FCC has authority to dictate how broadcasters cover an actual execution. Andrew Jay Schwartzman, a senior counselor at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, told Reuters that neither the Communications Act nor the Constitution gives the agency a basis to order broadcasters to carry or refuse to carry footage of a real event. The FCC has previously acknowledged that depictions of violence generally fall outside its authority to regulate television content.

Major networks, including ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox, had not publicly indicated whether they would air the execution. The decision could also involve online streaming platforms, several of which have policies restricting graphic depictions of death and violence.

Vice President JD Vance expressed uncertainty Friday about whether the livestream would proceed. Speaking to reporters in Ohio, Vance said, “I don't know that that's actually going to happen,” adding that he would not watch if it did. He also urged the public to remember the victims of the Fort Hood attack rather than allowing the controversy surrounding the execution to overshadow their suffering.

The proposal has drawn criticism from lawmakers in both parties, including Republicans who support enforcing Hasan's death sentence but oppose broadcasting the execution. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina called the plan “beyond disgusting,” arguing that public executions are associated with oppressive regimes and should not take place in the United States. Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia also supported the death sentence while opposing a livestream, saying, “America is better than that.”

Rep. Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania said the focus should remain on justice for the victims and their families, whose pain “deserves respect, not a public show.”

Democratic lawmakers have raised similar objections. Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, urged the administration to reconsider, calling the proposal a “barbaric spectacle” and warning that terrorist organizations could use the footage for recruitment. Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut described public executions as “medieval” during a CNN interview.

Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, also condemned the plan, saying it promoted a “culture of death” and could undermine the country's moral standing.

Hasan was convicted by a military jury in 2013 of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder for the November 5, 2009, attack at Fort Hood, then an Army installation in Texas. His execution, if carried out as scheduled, would be the first U.S. military execution since 1961 and the first military firing-squad execution since 1945.

The Pentagon has said it will provide additional details about the livestream. For now, it remains unclear whether any major television network will carry the feed or whether the broadcast will be limited to an online platform.