After shocking many by saying mentally ill homeless people should be put to death, Fox News morning host Brian Kilmeade apologized on Sunday for what he called an “extremely callous remark.”
Kilmeade’s mea culpa came one day after his original comment — “just kill ‘em” — went viral across multiple social media sites.
The “Fox & Friends” segment aired Wednesday morning, but it didn’t seem to garner widespread attention until Saturday morning, when it was picked up by Fox News critics such as Aaron Rupar.
The clip, labeled “Brian Kilmeade endorses euthanizing homeless people,” had garnered more than 20 million views on X by Sunday afternoon.
Commenters immediately called for the conservative network, which has a reputation for almost never apologizing, to take action against Kilmeade.
In the Wednesday segment, Kilmeade and the other hosts were talking about last month’s murder of Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, North Carolina. The suspect in the killing struggled with mental illness and was living in a homeless shelter, the suspect’s mother told CNN.
Co-host Lawrence Jones said taxpayers have given “billions of dollars to mental health and the homeless population,” but “a lot of them don’t want to take the programs, a lot of them don’t want to get the help that is necessary.”
“You can’t give them a choice,” Jones continued. “Either you take the resources that we’re going to give you … or you decide that you are going to be locked up in jail. That’s the way it has to be now.”
That’s what prompted Kilmeade to add, “Or involuntary lethal injection or something. Just kill ‘em.”
The condemnation was swift once the clip went viral on Saturday. Political figures such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom weighed in. (Newsom replied to the video clip with a proverb: “Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered.”)
Christine Quinn, the CEO of WIN, which runs shelters and transitional housing in New York City, called Kilmeade’s rhetoric “completely devoid of all humanity” and said it “only serves to divide and inflame.”
Quinn said in a statement that she welcomed a dialogue with Kilmeade about the issues. Or “better yet,” she said, “come volunteer in one of our shelters and see the face of homelessness for yourself — we could always use the help.”
Kilmeade appeared remotely on Sunday’s “Fox & Friends Weekend,” and Jones tossed to him, knowing Kilmeade had some cleaning up to do.
Kilmeade said that on Wednesday “we were discussing the murder of Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte and how to stop these kinds of attacks by homeless, mentally ill assailants, including institutionalizing or jailing such people so they cannot attack again.”
“Now during that discussion, I wrongly said they should get lethal injections,” Kilmeade said. “I apologize for that extremely callous remark. I am obviously aware that not all mentally ill, homeless people act as the perpetrator did in North Carolina, and that so many homeless people deserve our empathy and compassion.”
Fox News also publicized the apology on its website, saying Kilmeade “admits fault,” perhaps in an attempt to defuse any further fallout.
A Fox News spokesperson did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.
