In yet another example of right-wingers calling for violence, a Fox News anchor this week suggested homeless people with mental illnesses should be killed. And while the anchor, Fox and Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade, has already apologized, a closer look at his history makes clear this is just one of his many past incendiary—and often racist—remarks he has later walked back.
Kilmeade made the comments on air Wednesday morning, when the Fox and Friends anchors were talking about how to respond to homeless people with mental illnesses. The topic came up in a discussion about the killing of Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee, on a train in North Carolina last month. The Trump administration and other Republicans have alleged Democrats are to blame for the killing, claiming that it was directly connected to the party for being what they describe as too “soft on crime.” The killer, who had a lengthy criminal history, is facing federal charges. His mother has told local media that he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and that he had been homeless.
Kilmeade made the comments after co-host Lawrence Jones said those homeless people should either “take the resources we’re gonna give you, or—you decide—that you’re gonna be locked up in jail. That’s the way it has to be now.”
Kilmeade then cut in: “Or, involuntary lethal injection, or something. Just kill them.”
Kilmeade’s comments did not appear to go viral online until Saturday, when journalist Aaron Rupar shared the clip on X; by Sunday afternoon, it had 21 million views. By the time Rupar shared the clip, right-wingers, including members of the Trump administration, were deep into trying to punish those on the left who celebrated Charlie Kirk’s Wednesday killing or merely refused to “conform to the hagiography” of him, as my colleague Anna Merlan wrote.
So when Kilmeade’s comments started circulating, they prompted widespread outrage about the lack of consequences for right-wing calls to violence. Gun violence prevention advocate and Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts pointed to the fact that Kilmeade remained on air while MSNBC legal analyst Matthew Dowd was fired for saying Kirk promoted hate speech. Watts added: “This moral asymmetry in the media and online is destroying democracy.”
On Sunday, Kilmeade apologized on air “for that extremely callous remark.” He added: “I’m obviously aware that not all mentally ill homeless people act as the perpetrator did in North Carolina, and that so many mentally ill homeless people deserve our empathy and compassion.”
Indeed, research has shown that people experiencing homelessness, including those with severe mental illnesses, are more likely to be victims of crime than those who have stable housing. And with the Supreme Court essentially greenlighting the criminalization of homelessness last year, plus the Trump administration cutting mental health research and support and pushing for “long-term” involuntary institutionalization for mentally ill homeless people, the landscape is likely to get even worse.
But what has received less attention in recent days is Kilmeade’s history of inflammatory speech that has prompted subsequent apologies. And given the vast right-wing effort currently underway to unearth what they see as hateful speech, Kilmeade’s prior comments seem worth revisiting. Let’s take a walk down memory lane:
- Kilmeade apologized in 2009 after making comments in which he complained about Americans marrying people from different cultures, as opposed to Swedish people, who he said have “pure genes.” Kilmede subsequently said he recognized his comments were “inappropriate,” adding, “America [is a] huge melting pot, and that is what makes us such a great country.”
- In 2010, Kilmeade said, “not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslim,” in response to a clip of Bill O’Reilly claiming on The View, “Muslims killed us on 9/11.” Kilmeade later said he “misspoke,” adding, “I don’t believe all terrorists are Muslims. I’m sorry about that if I offended or hurt anybody’s feelings.”
- When the Trump administration was separating immigrant families during his first term, Kilmeade said: “Like it or not, these aren’t our kids. Show them compassion, but it’s not like [Trump] is doing this to the people of Idaho or Texas. These are people from another country.” He later claimed: “Of course I didn’t mean to make it seem like children coming into the U.S. illegally are less important because they live in another country. I have compassion for all children, especially for all the kids separated from their parents right now.”
.@kilmeade on children who have been split from their parents as a result of Trump administration policy: “Like it or not, these are not our kids. Show them compassion, but it’s not like he’s doing this to the people of Idaho or Texas. These are people from another country.” pic.twitter.com/s24zwyDfNc
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 22, 2018
- While Kilmeade was filling in for then Fox host Tucker Carlson in 2022, the network put up a photoshopped image of convicted sex offender and Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell giving a foot massage to the judge who approved the search warrant at Donald Trump’s Palm Beach residence, as my colleague Inae Oh covered at the time. Kilmeade later clarified in a post on X that the image was “a meme pulled from Twitter & wasn’t real. This depiction never took place & we wanted to make clear that we were showing a meme in jest.”
Spokespeople for Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Mother Jones on Sunday afternoon.
