Progressive podcaster Jennifer Welch appears to have lost millions of dollars in sponsorships after laughing at a joke about exhuming the late Charlie Kirk and assassinating him again.
Welch, 53, and her co-host, Angie Sullivan, read the offensive post during Thursday’s episode of I’ve Had It before laughing. The pair had been celebrating the Democratic Party’s strong performance in the previous week’s midterm elections.
“We’re digging up Charlie Kirk and doing it again,” Welch said while quoting the post. Their exchange quickly drew condemnation from both sides of the political divide. The passage was later removed from the episode, and Welch and Sullivan issued a joint apology.
The backlash, however, had already begun affecting the podcast’s business relationships. Chewy, Cash App, and Casper announced that they were ending their partnerships with the show. Eyewear company Zenni, luggage maker NOBL Travel, and bedding brand Boll & Branch also followed suit, with each company addressing the decision on social media.
Conservative activist Sarah Fields subsequently tracked the fallout, identifying at least 19 businesses that had publicly distanced themselves from Welch and Sullivan over the 39-second clip.
Jennifer Sey, a former brand president at Levi’s, estimated in a post that the canceled sponsorships could represent approximately $7.6 million in lost revenue.
Sey said she arrived at that figure by estimating that each sponsor paid at least $100,000 per quarter. She described that amount as “often a minimum for shows like this” and called her calculation a “low-ish estimate.”
When contacted by the Daily Mail on Monday, Welch disputed Sey’s calculation while again expressing her “regret” over the comments.
Jennifer Welch, 53, and I’ve Had It cohost Angie Sullivan are losing sponsors at an alarming rate after laughing at a post that joked about ‘digging up’ Charlie Kirk last Thursday
More than a dozen companies, including Chewy and Cash App, distanced themselves from the podcast last week, citing the hosts’ demeanor and rhetoric
‘We laughed at an insensitive joke. We regret it, and we apologized,’ Welch said in an emailed statement. She added that her team ultimately ‘removed the segment from the episode because we oppose gun violence in all of its forms.’
‘Turning Point, the group leading the cancellation against us, mocks violence and never apologizes,’ Welch added, naming the group Kirk founded in 2012 when he was 18. He was 31 when he was killed.
‘The estimated numbers that Jennifer Sey is putting together are way off,’ Welch said. ‘We still have plenty of advertisers and we aren’t going anywhere.’
I’ve Had It boasts 1.8million subscribers on YouTube and 1.3million followers on Instagram.
Welch concluded by maintaining she and Sullivan will continue to ‘relentlessly fight for equality and justice for every American’ and ‘enthusiastically welcome the nearly 30,000 new followers that have come to our channel in the last few days.’
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She also said the podcast made a donation to gun control nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety ‘to put our money where our mouth is.’
The statement echoed her and Sullivan’s apology, which was posted to Instagram on Wednesday.
‘We’ll keep using our platforms to fight for the safety of all Americans,’ the statement read, in part.
Jennifer Sey, the former brand president of Levi’s, postulated that the lost partnerships would equate to roughly $7.6million in revenue
In a statement to the Daily Mail, Welch reiterated that she and Sullivan’s team had deleted the clip from the official episode and deplored gun violence
Kirk, seen here with wife Erika, died in September of last year after being assassinated in Utah
Kirk died in September of last year after being assassinated at a speaking event in Utah.
Welch asserted, without evidence, on Thursday that the 23-year-old currently in custody for the killing, Tyler Robinson, was a conservative.
‘He was shot by a MAGA person,’ Welch said of Kirk, adding of Utah native Robinson: ‘White person, White MAGA family.’
Robinson is not known to have espoused MAGA views. He was charged with seven alleged offenses, including aggravated murder, in September last year and pleaded not guilty to all of them. A date for the trial has not yet been determined.
Welch sparked outrage last year after accusing Vice President JD Vance of engaging in an amorous exchange with Kirk’s widow, Erika, when he hugged her on stage at her husband’s memorial.
‘Playing slap and tickle with Erika Kirk. It’s the weirdest s**t I’ve ever seen,’ she told Sullivan and former MSNBC star Joy Reid at the time.
A rep from Kirk’s Turning Point USA, Andrew Kolvet, called the three ‘deranged’ and ‘likely post-menopausal’ in response.
‘This is an insight into the spiritual core of the radical left: sneering, deriding, and jeering at the suffering of a widow because her slain husband was conservative,’ Kolvet said.