Government calls its livestreamed execution optional, then a restoration of American values, then something to be happy about.

…(cont) This didn't start Sunday, though, so let me walk it in order. On October 8th, War Secretary Pete Hegseth told Real America's Voice the execution would be "a public event." The same day, a defense department official clarified that public event means livestreamed, with more details to come. A date got set: December 3rd. Nobody that day said whose decision it was to make it public. Just that it would be.

Sunday, Mullin went on CBS to defend the plan that official had clarified in October, and "no one has to watch" was the whole of it — for about half the interview. Then, in the same conversation, Mullin called the livestream part of "restoring American values." I've been sitting with that one. A defense tells you that you're free to look away. A restoration tells you what the country is supposed to be looking at. Can a thing be both optional and a restoration at the same time, in the same ten minutes, from the same man?

Same day, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer said he's "so happy" that President Trump alone gets to decide whether the broadcast airs. Not relieved that someone's handling it. Happy. I drive a car that needs a fan belt, and it tells me what it needs every morning with a sound I understand. Four people are on the record about this execution now — Hegseth announced it, an official clarified it, Mullin defended it, Emmer applauded somebody else having the authority to decide it — and not one of those four sentences is "I ordered this broadcast." Is there a difference between defending a decision and admitting you made one?

I keep going back to my bill on the porch, forty-one dollars for data I didn't choose to spend, because Mullin's defense and Mullin's reframing can't both be the whole truth. If no one has to watch, what exactly is being restored for the people who do? And if it's a restoration, a program, a value — is "no one has to watch" still the honest description of it, or just the easier one to say on a Sunday morning show?

Oh — excuse me, before I let you go. Mullin told Margaret Brennan no one has to watch. In the same breath, he called it restoring American values. Which of those two sentences is the policy, and which one is just what you say until somebody asks the second question?