“Fox and Friends” host Brian Kilmeade issued an apology after suggesting “involuntary lethal injection” as a solution for mentally ill homeless people while live on air.
During a brief appearance on Fox News Sunday morning, Kilmeade said, “In the morning, we were discussing the murder of Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, N.C., 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. I apologize for that extremely callous remark. I’m 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’s controversial remarks came during a Wednesday broadcast of “Fox and Friends,” where he and his co-hosts, Lawrence Jones and Ainsley Earhardt, were discussing the death of Iryna Zarutska. The 23-year-old Ukrainian woman was stabbed and killed on a train in North Carolina in August. According to CNN, the assailant, Decarlos Brown, had a record of mental illness and multiple former convictions.
Lawrence first claimed that “a lot” of homeless people “don’t want to take the [government] programs” and “don’t want to get the help.” He suggested that the only solution for homeless people refusing government assistance is for them to get “locked up in jail.” Kilmeade then added, “Or involuntary lethal injections, or something. Just kill them.”
The commentary sparked outrage on social media. California Gov. Gavin Newsom was one of the many to call out Kilmeade. On his X account, he reshared Kilmeade’s sound bite and wrote, “Proverbs 21:13: Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered.”
