Fox News host Ed Henry pressed Kyle Kashuv on the teenager’s past use of the N-word in recently uncovered messages.
Kashuv announced on Monday that Harvard University had rescinded his admission over a years-old group message in which Kashuv wrote the word “n*****” a dozen times. The group chat was uncovered and began circulating on social media in May, several months after Harvard accepted Kashuv into its class of 2023.
Kashuv survived the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida in February 2018. The gunman killed 17 people and wounded 17 others. Afterward, Kashuv rose to national prominence as an outspoken critic of gun control.
“What were you thinking?” Fox host Henry asked Kashuv on Monday night, referring to the private messages Kashuv sent as a 16-year-old before the shooting.
“At that time it was really a friend group where who could say the most shocking thing and most extreme thing for the sake of shock value. I’m extremely sorry for it. I wish I could take it back but I can’t. All I can do right now is seek to right this wrong. I know that forgiveness isn’t given. It’s earned. I know that the person who wrote those things is not who I am today,” Kashuv said.
Henry asked Kashuv how others can know if he is sincere or just covering up racist beliefs in order to get something, such as being readmitted to Harvard.
“Ever since I have become a public figure, I condemned racism. I have condemned hatred,” Kashuv said. “What I said is indefensible and wrong and I have apologized for it repeatedly.”
“What is also in that same message is I used anti-Semitic jokes and I basically pray every week,” Kashuv added. “I’m Jewish. My parents are Jewish. They emigrated from Israel. Half of my family was wiped out in the Holocaust. So clearly it’s not indicative of who I am.”
