In mid-September 2025, Fox News host Brian Kilmeade was thrust into the spotlight over alleged remarks he made during an episode of "Fox & Friends" about euthanizing homeless people.
Kilmeade allegedly suggested that homeless people who are suffering from mental illness should receive "involuntary lethal injection" and that authorities should "just kill them," according to users sharing the purported statement on social media platforms such as Instagram (archived), Facebook (archived), X (archived) and Reddit.
The spread of the rumor led many Snopes readers to reach out asking for verification of its attribution.
"Involuntary lethal injection, or something. Just kill them" is a quote correctly attributed to Kilmeade, who made the statement during a discussion on "Fox & Friends" on Sept. 10, 2025
In the clip, "Fox & Friends" co-hosts Kilmeade, Lawrence Jones and Ainsley Earhardt discussed the homeless population as part of a segment about the killing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, North Carolina, allegedly at the hands of a mentally ill person who lived in a homeless shelter.
The full context of the exchange was as follows (emphasis ours):
JONES: Billions of dollars to mental health and the homeless population. 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. Either you take the resources that we're going to give you, or you decide that you're going to be locked up in jail. That's the way it has to be now.
KILMEADE:
Or , uh, involuntary lethal injection, or something. Just kill them. EARHARDT: Yeah, Brian, why did it have to get to this point?
KILMEADE: I would say this: We're not voting for the right people. In North Carolina, wake up.
Kilmeade's use of "or" suggested he intended his statement as a possible solution specifically for homeless people suffering from mental illness who reject other alternatives, rather than implying all homeless people should be executed. We've reached out to Kilmeade to confirm that this is what he meant by the quote and will update this story if we hear back.
Though Kilmeade made the statement on Sept. 10, it
Following the resulting backlash, Kilmeade made an on-air apology for the remarks on Sept. 14, 2025, which he also posted to X (archived).
He said:
We were discussing the murder of Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, North Carolina, and how to stop these kind 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 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.