Homeland Security defends livestreamed execution that no official admits ordering

…(cont) Days later, the man whose War Department made that call tells reporters he "wasn't involved" in planning the livestream, then in the same breath says he'll "make a decision ultimately" on a broadcast his own Pentagon had already confirmed making. That's a normal division of labor in a large government, a Secretary handles the logistics and the president weighs in on the big picture later — no, that's not it either, that's one man declining credit for an order his own department had already given to a reporter five days earlier.

Which brings us to Mullin, Sunday, holding a broadcast three separate officials have now described without any of them claiming to have ordered it. He isn't arguing the execution shouldn't be televised; Hegseth settled that on the 8th. He's arguing that televised isn't the same as mandatory, and that's a real distinction, the kind contracts get built on. The camera is scheduled. The date is set. The firing squad has an address. The only thing left undecided, it turns out, is whether any of the three men attached to this will say, on the record, that they're the one who made the call.

Nobody has to watch, Secretary Mullin says. Somebody, evidently, still has to answer for it. That part hasn't been optional since the 8th of October.