Mike Johnson
Role at the time: Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, in an interview with CBS News
Statement summary
In a CBS News interview, House Speaker Mike Johnson said some colleagues had concerns that a video of the execution could become a recruiting tool for terrorists, and said he would tell the White House that not everyone favored the idea.
“There are colleagues who have concerns ... The concern would be that you would create a video that would be a recruiting tool for future terrorists ... I need to tell the White House what some of my colleagues think about that, and not everybody is in favor of the idea.”
Scripps News report, carried by WXYZ Detroit, on House Speaker Mike Johnson's remarks in a CBS News interview broadcast on October 12, 2026 about the plan to livestream Nidal Hasan's execution.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Why we used this label
The case asks whether Pete Hegseth should livestream Nidal Hasan's execution. Johnson relays his colleagues' concern that a broadcast could help terrorist recruiting and says he would not watch, but he frames the question as one still open for discussion with the White House. That is a reservation rather than a rejection, so we labeled it Mixed or conditional. The closest competing label is Condemned; it loses because he does not say the plan should be dropped.