Jennifer Welch, the 51-year-old co-host of the profanity-soaked liberal show “I’ve Had It Podcast,” turned her fire on First Lady Melania Trump in a curse-laden rant. “I don’t like anything for Melania,” Welch said.
The broadside was hardly a departure. Welch and co-host Angie “Pumps” Sullivan have built one of the fastest-growing podcasts out of exactly that register, recording above Welch’s design studio in Oklahoma City. “You want to go low, we’re gonna go lower,” Welch said of the show’s approach to the right.
Two Oklahoma Moms, One Growing Audience
The podcast began in 2022 as entertainment fare — the debut episode carried the title “Toddlers Are Assholes” — and the two friends, who had earlier shared screen time on a Bravo reality series, later steered the format toward blunt political talk. Former President Barack Obama has since sat down with them, and earlier guests included Mary Trump in 2023 and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in early 2024.
The audience figures behind the show are sizable. Across platforms, the hosts have amassed several million followers, 1.3 million of them on YouTube and just under a million on Instagram. Apple’s weekly podcast rankings in early October 2025 placed the show at No. 2 in the society and culture category, while their news offering, “IHIP news,” sat 18th on YouTube’s podcast charts.
That climb has made the pair a favorite answer among Democrats searching for a counterweight to the male-dominated right-wing audio ecosystem credited with helping propel President Donald Trump to victory in 2024. “Everyone always talking about we need to find the Joe Rogan of the left when they’re right here!” wrote podcaster Gibson Johns on X, pairing the post with a photo of Welch and Sullivan. Welch has pushed back on that framing, saying the hunt for one left-wing figurehead is too narrow a project because the left does not revolve around a leader the way the right revolves around Trump.
Nicknames, Insults and Chart Success
Insults are the hosts’ trademark. When the president scheduled a press conference following a weekend of rumors about his health, the two streamed live on YouTube to more than a million viewers and joked about his condition, using their nickname for him, “Cankles McTacoTits.” Vice President JD Vance has drawn labels of his own, including “Lil Smokey.”
Welch makes no secret of defending the approach. She has said liberals should stop trying to police themselves into perfection and go after Republicans aggressively, because in her view Republicans respond to being bullied. She has also argued that the left needs a broad and diverse coalition, and she describes the show’s community — a “cult,” as the hosts joke — as taking in gay listeners along with suburban white women who are becoming politically radicalized.
The two are only one part of a wider liberal move into online video. Joshua Citarella, an artist and researcher whose work examines obscure channels of political radicalization among young internet users, started the YouTube interview program “Doomscroll” in September 2024; the writer and podcaster Ezra Klein has turned up as a guest.
One Year After the Kirk Assassination
Personal-attack politics drew renewed scrutiny on the anniversary of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. September 10, 2026, falls a year after his killing, and a conservative opinion column published that morning contended that his death drew out the worst impulses in American media and celebrity culture, citing false claims that the alleged assassin was a conservative as well as the barrage of attacks aimed at Kirk, his widow, Erika Kirk, and conservatives in general.
Among those the column singled out were Matthew Dowd, then an MSNBC analyst, far-left podcaster Hassan Piker, veteran broadcaster Katie Couric and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel. ABC pulled Kimmel off the air briefly after he charged that Trump’s supporters were trying to deny that Kirk’s killer had come from their own political ranks; Kimmel later said his remarks had been mischaracterized — maliciously, in his view. Dowd’s MSNBC job ended over what he said about Kirk, and he has pinned the firing on what he described as the right-wing media mob.
Much of the press closed ranks behind Kimmel. Chris Hayes of MSNBC described the suspension as the plainest case of state actors going after free speech that he had ever witnessed; CNN media analyst Brian Stelter said America is less free if late-night comedians cannot say what they want; and CNN’s Jake Tapper hosted an hour-long special titled “No Laughing Matter: Free Speech Under Attack.” The column also faulted coverage of Kirk’s widow, citing a Washington Post piece by Ashley Fetters Maloy about her attire.
The column’s author wrote that he would not reprint the most venomous commentary about Kirk, arguing that repeating it would only enrich those who have profited by attacking a grieving widow. A year on, the anniversary has become its own battleground — and Welch’s remarks about the first lady suggest the political insult trade is not cooling.