A Fox News firebrand has apologized after suggesting that killing people could be a viable solution to the country’s homelessness crisis.
Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade on Sunday attempted to walk back his rant, in which he suggested the homeless should face “involuntary lethal injection or something” before adding, “just kill ’em.”
“During [our] discussion, I wrongly said [homeless] people should get lethal injections. I apologize for that extremely callous remark,” Kilmeade said. “I’m obviously aware that not all homeless mentally ill people act as that perpetrator did in North Carolina and that so many homeless people deserve our empathy and compassion.”
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Kilmeade had made the original comments Wednesday while discussing the horrific Aug. 22 murder of 23-year-old Ukrainian national Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, North Carolina. The killing, allegedly carried out by Decarlos Brown Jr., has become a political flashpoint in a racially charged campaign among far-right commentators, given that Zarutska was white and Brown is Black.
Co-hosts Ainsley Earhardt and Lawrence Jones appeared to agree, with Earhardt responding: “Yeah, Brian, why did it have to get to this point?”
Brown, who has an extensive criminal history and a known diagnosis of schizophrenia, told the court that the crime was carried out by a “material” implanted in his body by nefarious forces. He is understood to have been homeless at the time of the attack.
A spokesperson for Fox did not comment but referred the Daily Beast to Kilmeade’s apology. His remarks came amid widespread outrage over his “dangerous” comments from across the political spectrum.
“I can’t get this out of my head. Kilmeade, I know you are better than this,” former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger wrote on X.
He added: “Jesus would be spending his time with these exact people you are suggesting be killed by the government. And condemning you. FoxNews, are you ok with this?”
“I have no words for this,” conservative attorney George Conway wrote on X. Conway is the former spouse of Trump ally Kellyanne Conway.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom also weighed in, captioning the clip on X with: “Proverbs 21:13: Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered.”
Others quickly pointed to what they called hypocrisy after MSNBC fired political analyst Matthew Dowd last week, following comments he made about early reports of a shooting at Utah Valley University during a Charlie Kirk event.
“I always go back to hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions. I think that’s the environment we’re in,” Dowd said Wednesday on MSNBC.
“You can’t stop with these awful thoughts you have and then saying these awful words and then not expect awful actions to take place.”
“Kilmeade is advocating for extrajudicial killings on FOX, yet Matthew Dowd was fired by MSNBC for pointing out Charlie Kirk’s dangerous rhetoric,” gun violence prevention advocate Shannon Watts wrote on X. “This moral asymmetry in the media and online is destroying democracy.”
