A day after saying they "should not have laughed," the "I've Had It" hosts turned their fire on Turning Point USA as sponsors left the show.
“I’ve Had It” hosts Angie “Pumps” Sullivan, left, and Jennifer Welch speak at a GLAAD event in New York in June 2025. (Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for GLAAD)
Jennifer Welch and Angie "Pumps" Sullivan laughed on air at a joke about digging up Charlie Kirk's body and killing him again. When advertisers began abandoning their podcast, they apologized, then turned their anger toward the conservative organization Kirk founded. Welch accused Turning Point USA of trying to cancel them to impress its donors.
The hosts created the controversy with their own laughter. Their response to the consequences made it worse.
Erika Kirk is raising two young children without their father. On Sunday, she wrote on X that her husband's assassination is "something our two children and I will live with every day for the rest of our lives." Three days earlier, Welch and Sullivan, hosts of the podcast "I've Had It," read a post on air that said, "We're digging up Charlie Kirk and doing it again." Both laughed hysterically.
Kirk, the 31-year-old founder of Turning Point USA, was shot and killed Sept. 10, 2025, while speaking at Utah Valley University. After more than 20 seconds of uncontrollable laughter, Welch finally managed, "No comment," according to Mediaite. The segment was later cut from the episode. By then, the clip had spread.
Sullivan brought up the family of Tyler Robinson, the man charged with Kirk's murder, and Welch agreed, "He was shot by a MAGA person." Robinson's mother told police her son had moved politically to the left during the previous year, according to charging documents reported by the Deseret News. Prosecutors alleged that Robinson targeted Kirk over his political expression. Nothing in those findings supports Welch's claim that the accused killer was a MAGA supporter.
Jennifer Welch, left, and Angie “Pumps” Sullivan, hosts of the “I’ve Had It” podcast. (Credit: The Guardian/I’ve Had It)
Sponsors moved quickly. Cash App said Thursday on X that it was finished with the show. "We do not condone violence of any kind, and we are no longer sponsors of this podcast," the company wrote. Zenni said it had canceled its advertising. Chewy said it does not sponsor or support the podcast, and Boll & Branch said it does not currently advertise there and will not in the future. At least nine companies pulled their support, according to Business Insider.
On Saturday, the hosts apologized on Instagram. "It was an insensitive joke, and we should not have laughed. We regret it, and we apologize," they wrote. The statement went on to say "there is nothing funny about gun violence" and announced a donation to Everytown for Gun Safety. It named Kirk once and then turned to gun policy. It said nothing to his widow or his children.
Turning Point USA spokesman Andrew Kolvet dismissed the apology. He wrote that the hosts "laughed uncontrollably because they're actually happy Charlie is dead," and said he might be willing to listen if they apologized "for being part of a toxic and evil culture that perpetuates violence against conservatives." By Monday, his public tally on X stood at 21 companies that had dropped the show or said they had no ties to it, WFMD reported.
Welch answered him Sunday in a video. "So, now they're trying to ignite a war with us because they want to prove to their donors, 'We can cancel libs,'" she said, according to Mediaite.
Then she told Kolvet who the apology was for.
"Andrew, we're never ever going to sit down and listen to you," Welch said. "When we apologize for laughing at a joke on our podcast, that wasn't for you. That was for us, because somebody I love very much died from gun violence two years ago and I just didn't feel good about that."
She went on, "That apology was so that, when I advocate for common-sense gun reform, that I'm doing it clean and clear," according to TheWrap. Every reason she gave was about her own conscience.
She also told Kolvet, "At Turning Point, you all laugh at violence all the time." Sullivan added her own attack on the organization and its political allies, and Welch closed with a profane dismissal of the group. By Sunday, the hosts had gone from "we should not have laughed" to cursing at the organization Kirk built.
The defense continued Monday. In an "IHIP News" episode, Welch said she condemns gun violence and political violence. She also called Kirk "a vile, unrepentant racist," according to Mediaite.
Acknowledging wrongdoing took one Instagram post. Accountability would have meant standing by it once the consequences became costly.
Welch has talked this way about Kirk's death before. In December 2025, after Erika Kirk condemned people who mocked or justified the assassination, Welch said on her show, "The person that I heard that justified his death was him." She was pointing to his defense of gun rights, according to Mediaite.
Erika Kirk's Sunday post did not name Welch or Sullivan. It also followed comedian Dave Chappelle telling a Madison Square Garden audience he had felt better since Kirk's killing, and it addressed "leftist podcasters, comedians, and commentators" who laugh at political assassination. "A culture that laughs at assassination is one of profound moral decay," she wrote. "You do not have to agree with someone's politics to recognize the value of their life. This should not be so hard."
Welch and Sullivan were wrong to laugh at Charlie Kirk's murder. They acknowledged it. When the consequences reached their advertisers, they turned their anger on his allies and made their own grievances the center of the story.
Then Welch explained whom the apology was really for.
Themselves.
