Brian Kilmeade, the co-host of “Fox and Friends,” broke his silence over the weekend after his idea on how to deal with the homeless — involuntary lethal injection — was met with widespread rebuke and calls for his firing.
“In the morning, we were discussing the murder of Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, North Carolina and how to stop these kinds of attacks by homeless mentally ill assailant, including institutionalizing or jailing such people so they cannot attack again,” Kilmeade said on the network. “Now during that discussion, I wrongly said they should get lethal injections.
“I apologize for that extremely callous remark,” he continued. “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.”
Kilmeade made his controversial remarks during the Wednesday episode of “Fox and Friends.”
He entered his idea into a discussion with co-hosts Ainsley Earhart and Lawrence Jones while discussing the tragic fatal stabbing of Zarutska, a Ukranian refugee.
The trio discussed the incident and made the case that the suspect, who had a long list of arrests and was reportedly diagnosed with schizophrenia, should have been taken off the streets a long time ago.
“This is happening all across the country, and it’s a money issue,” Jones said before adding that a lot of homeless people “don’t want” help.
“You can’t give ‘em a chance,” he added. “Either you take the resources that we’re going to give you, or you decide that you gotta be locked up in jail. That’s the way it has to be now.”
Kilmeade then floated his idea.
“Or uh, involuntary lethal injection. Or something,” he said. “Just kill ‘em.”
Kilmeade’s comment, which was given on Wednesday’s show, drew rebuke across social media.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) shared it and wrote, “Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered.”
Billy Baldwin shared the clip and wrote, “Brian Kilmeade must apologize or be fired.”
“What Brian Kilmeade said about the homeless on national TV was abhorrent,” Silvia Ramirez wrote. “Brian Kilmeade sees the homeless as the enemy. He sees people who have lost it all as lesser than. He views the homeless as yesterday’s trash. The inhumanity of his words. Brian Kilmeade should be fired.”
“America’s homeless population includes over a million children and tens of thousands of veterans, many of whom served in Iraq or Afghanistan,” Virginia Rep. Don Beyer (D) wrote on X. “Nobody deserves to be murdered for mental illness or poverty. These Fox hosts are calling for mass murder — it’s sick.”
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