US Politics
Podcaster causes outrage after calling Erika Kirk a ‘grifter’ and her late husband an ‘unrepentant racist
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A podcaster has ignited an internet firestorm after branding Erika Kirk a “grifter” and Kirk’s late husband as an “unrepentant racist.”
Jennifer Welch, one of the co-hosts of the I’ve Had It podcast, also said that the widow should be “kicked to the curb” in an episode released on Sunday.
Welch tore into the Erika, after the CEO of Turning Point USA claimed that women had voted for Zohran Mamdani to become the mayor of New York City because they wanted the government to become a “replacement” for relationships.
“What I don’t want to have happen is women, young women, in the city look to the government as a solution,” Kirk said at a New York Times event last week. “To put off having a family or a marriage, because you’re relying on the government to support you, instead of being united with a husband.”
The furious host said that Kirk’s message was hypocritical, pointing out the disparity between the right-wing influencer encouraging women to stay home to start families while also headlining an event in Manhattan.
“You are an opportunistic grifter who weaponizes your gender to demean women,” Welch said. “You are a walking, talking, breathing example as to why nobody, number one, wants to be a Christian, and number two, wants to be a female hypocrite such as yourself.
“For you to prance into Manhattan and lecture women who are abundantly aware of the coattails of which we have ridden… to be able to be heard.”
Welch also blasted Charlie Kirk as being “racist” and “homophobic.”
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Her co-host, Angie Sullivan, suggested that there was more to life than “identifying yourself as someone’s wife or someone’s mother.”
The pair’s comments ignited a firestorm on social media, with one user describing Welch as one of the “most unlikeable and despicable people I’ve ever seen.”
“They’re both jealous. Old washed up feminists with many regrets,” another angry comment read.
“Jealousy is a terrible trait. Jennifer clearly needs to do some soul searching,” one user wrote.
However, there was also a wave of support for Welch on social media, with one person saying that they “couldn’t agree more.”
Another described them as “telling it like it is.”
Welch and Sullivan launched their podcast in 2022, but first rose to fame as the presenters of the Bravo reality show Sweet Home Oklahoma.
I’ve Had It has become known for its fierce rhetoric, which led left-wing political commentator Hasan Piker to describe it to The Cut as “the most radical progressive podcast in North America.”
Welch and Sullivan even interviewed the man at the center of their row with Erika Kirk, Zohran Mamdani, on the show.
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A day after being accused of being a “grifter”, Kirk was promoting her late husband’s book on the Fox News show Hannity.
Entitled Stop, in the Name of God: Why Honoring the Sabbath Will Transform Your Life, the book was finished just a month before a gunman killed him on September 10.
“He did not just write this book,” she said. “He lived it.”
The book details the Kirk family’s belief in keeping the Sabbath as a day of rest and even suggests that the readers give up their phones and television for a day.
Charlie Kirk’s widow claimed that “you don’t even have to be religious” to enjoy the book and suggested that the Turning Point USA founder became a “next-level husband” after deciding to observe the Sabbath.
Sean Hannity described Charlie Kirk as a “biblical scholar” during the appearance and claimed that the book advocated for “real rest.”
The Independent has contacted Jennifer Welch and Turning Point USA for comment.