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Fox anchor Brian Kilmeade has a long history of having to walk back incendiary comments.<\/span>Ted Shaffrey\/AP<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n In yet another <\/span>example of right-wingers<\/a> calling for violence<\/a>, a Fox News anchor this week suggested homeless people with mental illnesses should be killed. And while the anchor, Fox and Friends<\/em> co-host Brian Kilmeade, has already apologized<\/a>, a closer look at his history makes clear this is just one of his many past incendiary\u2014and often racist\u2014remarks he has later walked back.<\/p>\n Kilmeade made the comments on air Wednesday morning, when the Fox and Friends<\/em> anchors were talking about how to respond to homeless people with mental illnesses. The topic came up in a discussion about the killing<\/a> of Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee, on a train in North Carolina last month.\u00a0The Trump administration<\/a>\u00a0and other Republicans have alleged Democrats are to blame for the killing, claiming that it was directly connected to the party for being what they\u00a0describe<\/a>\u00a0as too \u201csoft on crime.\u201d The killer, who had a lengthy criminal history, is\u00a0facing<\/a>\u00a0federal charges. His mother has told<\/a> local media that he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and that he had been homeless. <\/p>\n Kilmeade made the comments after co-host Lawrence Jones said those homeless people should either \u201ctake the resources we\u2019re gonna give you, or\u2014you decide\u2014that you\u2019re gonna be locked up in jail. That\u2019s the way it has to be now.\u201d <\/p>\n Kilmeade then cut in: \u201cOr, involuntary lethal injection, or something. Just kill them.\u201d<\/p>\n Kilmeade\u2019s comments did not appear to go viral online until Saturday, when journalist Aaron Rupar shared<\/a> 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\u2019s Wednesday killing or merely refused to \u201cconform to the hagiography<\/a>\u201d of him, as my colleague Anna Merlan wrote.<\/p>\n So when Kilmeade\u2019s 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<\/a> to the fact that Kilmeade remained on air while MSNBC legal analyst Matthew Dowd was fired for saying Kirk\u00a0promoted hate speech<\/a>. Watts added: \u201cThis moral asymmetry in the media and online is destroying democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n On Sunday, Kilmeade apologized<\/a> on air \u201cfor that extremely callous remark.\u201d He added: \u201cI\u2019m 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.\u201d <\/p>\n Indeed, research has shown<\/a> that people experiencing homelessness, including<\/a> 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<\/a> of homelessness last year, plus the Trump administration cutting<\/a> mental health research and support and pushing for \u201clong-term\u201d\u00a0involuntary institutionalization<\/a>\u00a0for mentally ill homeless people, the landscape is likely to get even worse. <\/p>\n But what has received less attention in recent days is Kilmeade\u2019s history of inflammatory speech that has prompted subsequent apologies. And given the vast right-wing effort currently underway<\/a> to unearth what they see as hateful speech, Kilmeade\u2019s prior comments seem worth revisiting. Let\u2019s take a walk down memory lane: <\/p>\n .@kilmeade<\/a> 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<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 22, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Spokespeople for Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Mother Jones <\/em>on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n
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