Fox News host Brian Kilmeade suggested using “involuntary lethal injection” to kill homeless people with mental illness during a September 10, 2025 segment of “Fox & Friends”[1]. The comments came during a discussion about the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska by a homeless person with schizophrenia in North Carolina[2].
After co-host Lawrence Jones argued that homeless people should be forced to accept help or face jail time, Kilmeade interjected: “Or involuntary lethal injection… or something. Just kill 'em”[3]. His co-hosts briefly acknowledged the comment before continuing their discussion[4].
The remarks sparked widespread condemnation. Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia tweeted: “America’s homeless population includes over a million children and tens of thousands of veterans, many of whom served in Iraq or Afghanistan. Nobody deserves to be murdered by the government for mental illness or poverty”[1:1].
California Governor Gavin Newsom responded by quoting Proverbs 21:13: “Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered”[3:1].
The Independent - Fox News’ host Brian Kilmeade says 'just kill ‘em’ about mentally ill homeless people ↩︎ ↩︎
Rolling Stone - Fox Host Says to 'Just Kill ‘Em’ While Discussing Homeless People Who Decline Help ↩︎
HuffPost - 'Just Kill ‘Em’: Fox Host Makes Shocking Comment On Homeless People ↩︎ ↩︎
Media Matters - Fox News host on mentally ill people who commit crimes: “Just kill them” ↩︎
Why do journalists do this sort of thing where a guy will literally say that we should murder homeless people and then they try to dress down their language to the point of dishonesty? Euthanasia is when you help something die that is in horrible unyielding pain. Not when you kill something because you don’t know how to take care of it.
They are professionals and write however they are paid to write.
News orgs, and frankly many public institutions, seem to be lliability averse to a fault. My guess is journalists have generally been instructed to use passive language to avoid libel lawsuits due to the expense of settlement or counsel fees.
Passive language has become so common in journalism these days, and the far right terrorist cohort realizes the vocal minority bad faith pearl clutching schtick works well enough that they continue to threaten litigation against objective truth regularly. It’s Trump’s MO, and I assume it works because those being sued are terrified his base will be out for blood if he doesn’t get his way.
The more the news orgs settle and normalize this shit, the more inertia there is to get back to reality. It’s maddening, tbh.
FOX has always said it’s entertainment, not News. They use that defence in court cases. They’re not journalists, they’re entertainers.
to be clear I’m quoting the Rolling Stones article that was linked
Journalists are an endangered breed, Fox certainly doesn’t employ any