This is quite a loaded subject, what we’re about to tackle now, the hatred of the homeless, and who actually becomes homeless. The latter is going to blow your mind and that is why I want to address it. Brian Kilmeade made a comment yesterday on Fox News which I can only characterize as tone deaf to the point of ghastly. What he said was not only inhumane, it’s unconscionable because homelessness is an extremely complex and wide ranging problem, far more than most people know. That said, the direction Trump’s administration is going, maybe execution in the street by injection will be signed into law any time now. Don’t fall asleep during a picnic in the park, whatever you do, you might never wake up.
Fox News host Brian Kilmeade suggested getting rid of mentally ill homeless people:
“involuntary lethal injection…Or something. Just kill them.”
WTF is wrong with these people? pic.twitter.com/R7eLgSzda8
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) September 13, 2025
This is a complex topic without a simple origin and therefore no simple solution. First of all, it’s pure Nazi dogma to destroy the mentally ill. Hitler believed in eliminating all “defective” people and that included the handicapped, the disabled, and the elderly. I take umbrage to that having once been a disabled American, forced to take an early retirement, and now being a septuagenarian. My disability was physical, it did not affect my mind, nor diminish my skills or eliminate my education or any knowledge I might have picked up. My age does not preclude me from still being able to make a contribution to society, earn and pay taxes. This is true of many millions of older people.
So Hitler was wrong about this as he was so many things. Yet he eliminated people in the groups that I described. There are plenty of testimonials on record, transcripts from the Nuremberg trials, which recorded Hitler’s goons assembling groups of people and then individuals in the group would be asked to step forward, “Come here, Mother,” a Nazi would say to an old lady, and then “Mother” would go to her maker, frequently shot on the spot, for the sole crime of having grey hair and a few wrinkles. Likewise went anybody with a limp, a lisp, anybody who wasn’t perfect.
And as to “mentally ill” that is a broad term. My take on it is that we’ve all been mentally ill from time to time. I know I have. Times of bereavement, pressures of different sorts, can push any normal person into a bout of mental illness. That’s not just a personal opinion, that’s the opinion of the mental health community, that “well” and “mentally ill” are not black and what statuses, but shades of grey, running on a bell-shaped curve. And a person’s place on that curve can vary, depending on circumstances.
A lot of physical ailments carry mental components with them and a person suffering from any number of organic stresses to the body can indeed manifest a psychological reaction that is negative as well. So Brian Kilmeade would have you executed in the street, if you happened to be in the street, when maybe all you needed was to get medication which would solve the problems of your physical body and lift your spirits as well, and restore you to normalcy. (I’m sure you’ve all known people off their psych meds and how they can appear, and indeed be, temporarlly “insane.”)
Kilmeade’s crack was so horrific that evidently Fox News management demanded he retract it. Here’s that opus.
Fox News host Brian Kilmeade apologizes for his shocking call to murder mentally ill homeless people:
“I wrongly said they should get lethal injections. I apologize for that extremely callous remark.” pic.twitter.com/hmhuItGwTM
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) September 14, 2025
What Kilmeade is utterly clueless about is WHO becomes homeless. Not people you would necessarily think. Not shiftless bums. Not drug addicts, although certainly both those populations are represented. Not exclusively. I personally have known a number of capable, hardworking people who simply went through a terrible run of luck with health related, job related, marriage related, money related problems all converging at once.
I had a lawyer friend, a former co-worker, crash at my apartment once for a month because he was homeless. Brilliant man, good lawyer, nice guy. His problems were many fold, an acrimonious divorce coupled with job complications pretty much summarizes it. He couch surfed for a while and he got back on his feet. He is far and away not the first nor the only person that I can name who went through a difficult passage in his life which included homelessness.
I had another co-worker crash at my place for similar reasons, no job and a marriage that went south. She stayed with me until she got a job, and then stayed a little longer until she could rent a room. Hardworking, decent person. She was simply down on her luck. And in point of fact, I could characterize both of these friends as mentally ill. They were severely depressed. The woman was broken hearted, due to the fact that her marriage ended in betrayal. She could hardly eat or put one foot in front of the other. but she did force herself, which I admired. One sought counseling and I encouraged the other to do so as well.
My point is, that to all intents and purposes, both my friends fit the definition of mentally ill and homeless — which makes them ripe for Brian Kilmeade’s “involuntary” needle ending their lives. Sheer madness. And let me be clear, they both slept in their cars, bathed at the gym, all that, before finding their way to my couch. So they were truly homeless, on the street, and severely depressed — fully qualified for Kilmeade’s lethal injection. (And would that be administered by the cops, I wonder? Or is there some due process here, anything like that?)
And it’s intriguing that Kilmeade got by with an apology at Fox News when Matthew Dowd at MSNBC got sacked for a comparatively tepid remark; thereby proving once again the old adage, It’s Okay If You’re A Republican. This is what Dowd opined about Charlie Kirk the day of Kirk’s death.
He’s been one of the most divisive, especially divisive younger figures in this, who is constantly sort of pushing this sort of hate speech or sort of aimed at certain groups. And I always go back to, hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions. And I think that is the environment we are in. You can’t stop with these sort of awful thoughts you have and then saying these awful words and not expect awful actions to take place. And that’s the unfortunate environment we are in.
That is a meandering, generalized statement about Kirk being a divisive figure, which he was. The worst thing you can accuse Dowd of is linking Kirk’s rhetoric to people taking aggressive actions and that’s not exactly a wild proposition. It’s not the same as suggesting that a group of people, the homeless and mentally ill, be summarily executed like rabid dogs.
I don’t think Kilmeade’s “apology” should be accepted. I think he should be off the air. I’m sure he won’t be, but in any just world, he would be. And I don’t know what propelled MSNBC to take the action they took for such a lukewarm remark other than fear of Trump. We need to stand up to Trump, not fear him. There is nothing defamatory in what Dowd said and if MSNBC isn’t prepared to speak truth to power then they will soon be eclipsed by other outlets that will.
Do you suppose that if we had a seance, we could will back the spirit of Ben Bradlee, the Washington Post editor who had the guts to pursue the Watergate story? That is what we need right now, that kind of moxie, not the likes of ABC and CBS signing settlement checks.
Any or all of us could be homeless at any time. Like you said, it just involves a number of things going badly in your life. I think just the state of being homeless is enough to give a person depression. At least your friends had cars. I also think the diminishing middle class, rising cost of housing, stagnant wages and increasing wealth gap are contributing to homelessness.
And it is about to acclerate as all the reasons Ursula referenced build momentum. And particularly among the MAGA faithful. But, with Fox and Kilmeade having the ear of T ……….
Men become beasts to avoid the pain of being human. Samuel Johnson
So he made an apology. Good. Now he should do the honorable thing and resign. He won’t, so Fox should fire him. They won’t.
When I first learned of these comments this morning there was nothing about an apology, but it hit me like a ton of bricks. I’ve been through serious bouts of depression in the past two (plus) decades to the point of needing counseling. And this latest round again I got an excellent therapist and have made real progress. So much was undone because apology or not this asshat and plenty of his ilk are so effing callous. He said what he had to say but had some outrage not been growing would have gone smugly along.
Having been homeless myself (after becoming disabled and forced into early retirement), and once I got into a stable situation again AND spending a couple of years as the Vice-Chair of the Partnership where I live (these entities exist all over the country) that addresses homelessness I know full well how easily it can happen. Tens of millions of Americans are right on the edge of becoming homeless every single month. That includes me because an HUD subsidy helps me pay my rent. Ever since Trump was sworn in and DOGE & other minions were set to work EVERY SINGLE DAY I know the axe is hanging over that program. It could fall any day and once again I’ll be homeless. With not just the same disability but additional health issues. And I no longer have a vehicle I can lock up (for a little safety while sleeping) to crash in in some parking lot.
So, this afternoon reading/hearing this apology it doesn’t change the mental/emotional setback I’ve endured. Kilmeade sat there with two other “I got mine – those who haven’t can f**k all’ asshats and revealed the kind of people they are. The plain fact is there aren’t enough resources to go around. Sometimes the resources themselves are problematic. Theft and even assault at shelters is more common than your think due to not enough staffing. My point is there are often reasons why some people choose to live on the streets. Sometimes they can find a few people in some spot where some mutual trust can build up where they look out for each other.
But sometimes due to crackdowns people get rousted out and driven to someplace, anyplace to get them the hell out of sight. And folks, for a while at least are on their own trying to find somewhere they can find a few others and feel safe. I could go on about this for a long time, but to callous, uncaring people like those self-righteous assholes on Fox’s air and the millions of people out there that nod their heads in agreement to them people who are homeless, or like me could become that way at any time we are NOTHING.
That’s been a lot for me to process today. But I’m so freaking sick of self-righteous asshole who make a BFD about being “Christian” so openly displaying such contempt.
‘And as to “mentally ill” that is a broad term. My take on it is that we’ve all been mentally ill from time to time.’
Ursula, you are spot on! I spent thirty-plus years working in the mental health field, as a county social worker, a vocational rehabilitation counselor, and as a counselor in Minnesota’s two year college system. Over and over, I saw many of my clients/students have events not of their own making completely turn their lives upside down, especially over a medical crisis and ensuing financial hardship completely decimate a person’s or family’s total vying power for
‘And as to “mentally ill” that is a broad term. My take on it is that we’ve all been mentally ill from time to time.’
Ursula, you are spot on! I spent thirty-plus years working in the mental health field, as a county social worker, a vocational rehabilitation counselor, and as a counselor in Minnesota’s two year college system. Over and over, I saw many of my clients/students have events not of their own making completely turn their lives upside down, especially over a medical crisis and ensuing financial hardship. Such an event can completely decimate a person’s or family’s total financial resources overnight. It can literally happen to anyone, over the simplest of things. Kilmead was a fool to make such a statement. I hope it tanks his career. But then tRump would probably replace Kash Patel with Kilmead. Sorry! I couldn’t resist!
Now, in “socialist” Europe, there are safety nets, however imperfect, that provide support and, certainly, avoid financial ruin for the patient and all their family. But that’s a bridge too far for far too many in the US. Afterall, there is still a lot of support for the BBB, which accelerates in the other direction.
Keep him on air. He revealed what he, and all nazis are about. Maybe the folks who aren’t nazis will finally wake the phuck up!!! Otherwise, as the Stones sang in Steet Fighting Man, there will be fighting in the streets.
Castles made of sand wash into the sea eventually. Jimi Hendrix
The number of homeless people in America was estimated at 771,480 in 2024, but this may be a significant underestimate because many of these folks fly under the radar. This was an increase of 118,300 over the previous year, one of the largest jumps recorded. About two-thirds are single people and one-third are families. The principle drivers for becoming homeless are high housing costs, medical bankruptcy, loss of jobs, mental illness and addictions. About the only bright spot in the statistics has been the decline in veterans who are homeless, amounting to a 55.6% reduction since 2011. This may reverse this year due to cuts in Veterans’ Affairs, and overall numbers could skyrocket because of cuts to other programs and a sinking economy. If unemployment surges and inflation takes off as some economists expect, there could be several million living in tents and cardboard shelters by year-end. There aren’t any safety nets large enough to handle this kind of crisis, except the big hearts of people who take people in, as you did Ursula.
When I first saw this clip several days ago, it was obvious all three hosts shared this opinion. Neither of the other hosts flinched. They could easily trigger one of their viewers to carry out their wishes. Perhaps these three hosts should aspire to be more like Coach Sam Pittman of the Arkansas Razorbacks. Coach Pittman recently donated his $5 million bonus to build homeless support centers in Fayetteville. This money will cover 150 permanent housing units and 300 emergency shelter beds with on-site social services, counseling, and job training. Yes, perhaps more of these wealthy hosts promoting death and hate should be a lot more like Coach Pittman.