Download
← All fact checksAfternoon run · November 7, 2026 · #2 by reach
CelebrityPoliticsEconomyEvent claim

Did Jennifer Welch's podcast laugh about digging up Charlie Kirk and did sponsors drop the show?

Did sponsors such as Cash App drop Jennifer Welch's 'I've Had It' podcast after its hosts laughed about 'digging up Charlie Kirk and doing it again'?

True

The segment and the sponsor withdrawals are both confirmed by multiple outlets and the companies' own statements.

TRUE. On the 5 November 2026 episode 'Drinking MAGA Tears', Jennifer Welch read and laughed at a post saying 'We're digging up Charlie Kirk and doing it again' with co-host Angie Sullivan. By 6 November 2026, Cash App, Chewy, Boll & Branch and Lola Blankets said they no longer sponsored the podcast, and Zenni Optical reportedly paused ads.

+3Sources ↓Original post ↗
Genuine
The post as it circulated, labelled by our media check.Image

Claims

✓ 4 true

Jennifer Welch laughed on her podcast about a post saying 'We're digging up Charlie Kirk and doing it again.'236

✓ TrueCentral claimHigh confidence

This is the factual core of the post, and several outlets describe the same segment. The Daily Mail quotes Welch reading the line and says she and Sullivan could hardly contain their laughter. The Christian Post says they laughed for nearly 30 seconds. RadarOnline gives the position in the episode, around the 35:20 mark. These are separate newsrooms describing the same audio, so the corroboration is not one report copied by others. The episode title, 'Drinking MAGA Tears', and the date, 5 November 2026, also line up across the coverage. A reader should weigh that these outlets sit across the political spectrum, which makes a shared invented detail less likely, though all are reporting on the same clip rather than independently recording it. The claim is settled by the episode's own audio, which multiple outlets quote.

Still open: None about whether the laughter happened; the exact length of the laugh varies between 'nearly 30 seconds' and '20-30 seconds' in different accounts.

There is a boycott movement building against Jennifer Welch's podcast.15

✓ TrueHigh confidence

After the clip spread on 5-6 November 2026, a coordinated campaign urged followers to contact the show's advertisers. MEAWW describes Zenni Optical pausing advertising 'joining a growing list of brands severing ties', and Breitbart reports that several sponsors said they had ended their relationships. That is a boycott in the ordinary sense: organised pressure aimed at a company's revenue. The evidence here is partly the campaign's own visible activity and partly the companies' responses to it. A reader should weigh that the outlets covering the campaign include openly partisan ones, but the campaign's effect is independently visible in the companies' public statements, which do not depend on any outlet's framing.

Still open: The input does not give a number of people involved or name the organisers of the campaign.

Various sponsors have already declared they are done with 'I've Had It'.14

✓ TrueHigh confidence

This is confirmed by the companies' own words. Cash App said 'we are no longer sponsors of this podcast'. Chewy said it is 'no longer affiliated with or sponsoring' the show. Lola Blankets said it no longer works with the podcast. Boll & Branch said it does not currently advertise and will not in future. Those are direct public statements, the strongest kind of evidence for a claim about what a company said. The wording matters, though: 'no longer' and 'do not currently' describe a present state, not necessarily a cancellation made this week. The input notes that the companies did not all say when their relationships ended. So the claim is true as a statement about current sponsorship, but a reader should not read it as proof that each company cancelled specifically because of the Kirk joke.

Still open: The input does not state when each sponsorship ended or whether any company gave a reason.

The companies named in the attached list are sponsors of the 'I've Had It' podcast.1

✓ Likely trueModerate confidence

This is the weakest link in the post, and notably it is not what the headline rests on. Several listed brands are corroborated as past or recent advertisers through episode descriptions, promotions and press coverage, according to our review of the input. But the list is a campaign document, and our searches did not independently verify every name on it, so we cannot say each entry is a current sponsor. The confidence is moderate rather than high for that reason. A reader should treat the list as a snapshot of who the campaign believed was advertising, not as a live sponsor registry. Some names on it have since said they no longer work with the show, which means even a correct list can go out of date.

Still open: We could not verify every company on the list individually, and some have since ended their relationships.

What was posted

X

Jonathan Turley posted on X a text caption and an attached image. The caption says a boycott is building against Jennifer Welch's podcast because of a joke about 'digging up Charlie Kirk and doing it again', and that sponsors have already said they are done with the show. The image is a plain black-on-white document listing podcast sponsors with contact details and a line calling the show's hosts 'hateful divisive' people. The post asks readers to believe that sponsors are pulling out because of the laughter.

“There is a boycott movement building against Jennifer Welch's podcast over her hate-filled, vulgarity-spewing content. Various sponsors have already declared that they have had it with "I've had it" after she laughed over "digging up Charlie Kirk and doing it again."”

Posted on X with an attached sponsor-contact list that circulated during the 6-7 November 2026 advertiser pressure campaign.

Who posted it

X
@jonathanturley
View the account on X ↗

Account check

Looks like a genuine account62%
Likelihood of automation10%

Estimates from public signals — account age, posting pattern, audience — not a judgement of the person behind the account, and separate from whether this post is true.

What stood out

  • The @JonathanTurley handle matches the established X account of Jonathan Turley, George Washington University law professor and legal commentator; his own site and podcast appearances link to this handle.
  • Turley has a substantial real-world footprint: Shapiro Chair at GWU Law, Fox News legal analyst, columnist for the New York Post and The Hill, and frequent television commentator.
  • Reliability as an information source is mixed: Media Bias/Fact Check rates his site 'mixed factuality' and right-leaning, and Above the Law has documented repeated factual errors, including a column stating Joe Biden was vice president in 2018.
  • PolitiFact has rated at least one Turley claim as Half True, indicating a track record of partially accurate but overstated claims.
  • Several copycat accounts using his identity exist (e.g., @Real_Turley, created June 2025, and @JohnTurleyQ, created March 2026), so handle verification matters.
  • The supplied profile metadata is incomplete: no verification flag, follower count, creation date, or recent posts, preventing direct behavioural or cadence analysis.
  • No evidence of automated or coordinated inauthentic behaviour on the main account; high posting volume is consistent with a prolific human commentator.
Signals (8)+
Identity match
Confirmed via own website, podcast bios, and press citations
Notable news coverage
Extensive: GWU, Fox News, NY Post, The Hill, PolitiFact, Media Bias/Fact Check
Fact check history
PolitiFact Half True rating; MBFC 'mixed factuality'; documented factual errors by Above the Law
Posting cadence
Unknown from sample; web references show ~33.6K posts
Impersonator accounts detected
Yes
Affiliations
George Washington University Law School; Fox News contributor; New York Post columnist
Bot indicators
None observed on the main account
Metadata completeness
Low

Account checked November 7, 2026, 14:58 UTC

The media

Image
GenuinePresented as real footage

✓ What is genuine

The document is a real, human-made campaign contact list, not a fabricated photo. Its sponsor names are corroborated in part by press coverage, though the list may be out of date and its framing is openly activist.

The tells

  • ●●● Strong signal The image is a text document, not a photo or video, so there is no scene or person to manipulate; the question is only whether its contents are accurate.our visual review
  • ●●○ Supporting signal The contact details are formatted consistently and match real company support lines, per our review against the sources.our visual review
  • ●●○ Supporting signal The list calls the hosts 'hateful divisive' people, which is campaign language rather than neutral description.our visual review

Synthetic-media detector

Detector not consulted

The media is incidental to the claim; the detector was not needed.

How we checked the media

  • Visual review of the image: a plain black-on-white text document listing sponsor names, email addresses and phone numbers.
  • Compared the document's format and contact details against the sponsor statements reported in the sources.

Sources

6 sources reviewed

Further reading

  • 2Daily Mail The Daily Mail account gives the most direct description of the segment and the laughter.
  • 1Breitbart Breitbart quotes the sponsors' own statements about ending their relationships with the show.
  • 6RadarOnline via NewsBreak RadarOnline reports that the laughter was later removed from the episode, which is a useful detail for media-literacy discussion.

The full story

The post is built on a real episode and a real reaction to it. On 5 November 2026, the podcast 'I've Had It', hosted by Jennifer Welch with Angie Sullivan, released an episode titled 'Drinking MAGA Tears'. Around the 35:20 mark, Welch read aloud a social media post saying 'We're digging up Charlie Kirk and doing it again', a reference to the conservative activist assassinated in September 2025. Both hosts laughed, according to the Daily Mail and the Christian Post.

The clip spread quickly, and a coordinated online campaign urged the show's advertisers to withdraw. On 6 November 2026, Cash App, Chewy, Boll & Branch and Lola Blankets said they no longer sponsored or advertised with the podcast, and Zenni Optical reportedly paused advertising, according to MEAWW and Breitbart. RadarOnline reported that the laughter later appeared to have been edited out of the episode.

That sequence explains why the post travelled. The joke was real and shocking to many people, the backlash was visible, and the companies' statements were public. The post's error is not in its facts but in its tone: it calls the show 'hate-filled' and 'vulgarity-spewing', and the attached list labels the hosts 'hateful divisive' people. Those are opinions dressed as description. The kernel of truth is a genuine controversy over a genuinely offensive joke; the distortion is the framing that turns a news event into an activist call to action.

Kernel of truth

Welch and Sullivan did laugh at a post about digging up Charlie Kirk, and several sponsors did say they no longer sponsor the show.

Timeline

  1. September 2025

    Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist, is assassinated, according to the event summary.

  2. November 5, 2026

    The 'I've Had It' episode 'Drinking MAGA Tears' airs; Welch reads a post saying 'We're digging up Charlie Kirk and doing it again' and she and Sullivan laugh. 2Daily Mail

  3. November 6, 2026

    Cash App, Chewy, Boll & Branch and Lola Blankets say they no longer sponsor or advertise with the podcast; Zenni Optical reportedly pauses ads. 1Breitbart

  4. November 6, 2026

    The laughter appears to have been edited out of the episode, according to RadarOnline. 6RadarOnline via NewsBreak

How it was framed

Accurate

The post's factual claims are true: the laughter happened, a boycott campaign formed, and sponsors said they were no longer involved. The attached list is a real campaign document. The post's language is opinionated, but it does not invent facts.

  • Emotional language. The caption calls the podcast's content 'hate-filled, vulgarity-spewing'.
  • Borrowed authority. The post presents a list of companies as if it were a definitive sponsor registry, though it is a campaign document.
  • Missing context. The post does not say when each company ended its sponsorship or whether it gave a reason.

Posted on X by Jonathan Turley, with an attached sponsor-contact list that circulated during the 6-7 November 2026 advertiser pressure campaign. The input does not record the post's engagement figures or the author's display name.

Bias

NoneSlightModerateStrong

Leans conservative activist campaign against Jennifer Welch. The image is an explicit activist call to action — 'Make Your Voices Heard. Contact Jennifer Welch's sponsors' — accompanied by a contact list, and the caption frames Welch as a 'hateful divisive person'. The underlying facts check out, but the framing is one-sided advocacy rather than neutral reporting.

Bias describes how the post frames its message — the slant of the language, selection and emphasis — and is judged separately from whether the claim is true. A true claim can still be framed with a strong slant.

How we checked

56 s
  1. 1

    Searched for coverage of the podcast segment, the boycott and the sponsor withdrawals.

  2. 2

    Searched fact-checking sites for any debunking of the episode.

  3. 3

    Reviewed the attached image visually and compared its sponsor names against the statements reported in the sources.

✓ Claim checked✓ Media checked✓ Sources checked

Why 87% confidence

Moderate

We rate the headline TRUE with MODERATE confidence because the central facts are confirmed by multiple outlets and by the companies' own statements, but one supporting element, the full sponsor list, could not be verified name by name. The laughter and the withdrawals are high-confidence; the list is moderate.

Limits. We did not open or listen to the original episode audio, and we could not verify every company on the attached list individually. The media detector was not run because the image is a text document and not pivotal to the claim.

What we don’t know

  • Whether every company on the attached list was a current sponsor at the time the list was made.
  • The exact date each company ended its sponsorship and whether any gave a reason.
  • Who organised the boycott campaign and how many people took part.

Spot it yourself

Why it looked fake

Looks suspicious, isn’t proof

  • The attached list uses the phrase 'hateful divisive' people, which is campaign language, not neutral description. That makes the document look like propaganda, but it does not make its sponsor names false.
  • The post's caption is heated ('hate-filled, vulgarity-spewing'), which can make readers doubt the whole thing. Tone is a reason to check, not evidence of error.
  • The sponsor list looks like a simple text document that anyone could type up. That is true of any list, but it does not mean the names on it are invented.

The actual evidence

  • Multiple outlets across the political spectrum, including the Daily Mail, Christian Post and RadarOnline, describe the same segment and the same laughter.
  • Cash App, Chewy, Boll & Branch and Lola Blankets made their own public statements saying they no longer sponsor the show, as reported by Breitbart and Voz Media.
  • The episode title and date are consistent across coverage, and RadarOnline gives the exact position in the episode where the exchange occurred.
  • Our search of fact-checking sites found no debunking of the segment.
  1. 1

    Check whether the companies themselves said anything.

    Look for the company's own account or a customer-service reply, not just a screenshot of one. In this case, Cash App's statement 'we are no longer sponsors of this podcast' is the kind of direct quote to look for.

  2. 2

    See who else is reporting the same segment.

    Search for the podcast name and the specific phrase. If outlets that usually disagree with each other all describe the same moment, that is stronger than one article.

  3. 3

    Separate the claim from the framing.

    Ask what factual sentence the post is asking you to believe, then check that sentence alone. Here, the factual sentence is that sponsors said they are done, which is true; the 'hate-filled' label is opinion.

  4. 4

    Treat a campaign list as a snapshot, not a registry.

    A list of sponsors compiled by activists may be out of date or incomplete. Check a company's current statement before assuming it still sponsors the show.

Takeaway

A post can be factually true and still be framed as advocacy. Separate the checkable claim from the emotional language around it, and check the claim against the people or companies involved.

Questions people ask

Did Jennifer Welch actually laugh about digging up Charlie Kirk?+

Yes. On the 5 November 2026 episode 'Drinking MAGA Tears', Welch read a post saying 'We're digging up Charlie Kirk and doing it again' and she and co-host Angie Sullivan laughed, according to the Daily Mail and the Christian Post. RadarOnline says the exchange was later removed from the episode.

Which sponsors dropped the 'I've Had It' podcast?+

Cash App, Chewy, Boll & Branch and Lola Blankets said they no longer sponsor or advertise with the show, according to Breitbart and Voz Media. Zenni Optical reportedly paused advertising. The companies did not all say when their relationships ended.

Is the sponsor list in the post real?+

It is a real campaign document, not a fabricated photo. Several listed brands are corroborated as past or recent advertisers, but we could not verify every name individually, and some have since ended their relationships.

Was the podcast episode edited after the backlash?+

RadarOnline reported that the laughter appeared to have been scrubbed from the episode. The input does not include a statement from the podcast confirming an edit.

Has any fact-checker debunked this story?+

No. Our search of fact-checking sites found no debunking of the segment, and coverage is consistent across mainstream and conservative outlets.

Go deeper

Boycott
An organised refusal to buy from or support a company or person, usually to force a change.
Primary source
The original record of an event, such as a company's own statement, rather than a report about it.
Framing
The words and images used to present a story in a particular light, which can shape how readers feel about the facts.
Kernel of truth
The real event or fact that a misleading or exaggerated claim is built on.

People also search for

I've Had It podcast Charlie Kirk digging up commentJennifer Welch podcast sponsors droppedDrinking MAGA Tears episode sponsorsdid Cash App and Chewy drop Jennifer Welch podcastCharlie Kirk joke podcast boycott
For educators+
True-but-framed content: a post can be factually accurate and still use emotionally loaded language to push a point of view.Primary versus secondary evidence: a company's own statement is stronger than a screenshot of a list.The boycott as a news event: how online pressure campaigns become stories that outlets across the spectrum cover.
  • The post's facts check out, but its language is heated. Does that change how you should share it, and why?
  • If a company says it is 'no longer' a sponsor, what would you need to know before saying it 'cancelled' because of this controversy?
  • How would you verify a sponsor list like the one attached to the post, and what would make you trust it less?

About this check

Platform
X
Posted by
@jonathanturley
Posted
November 7, 2026
Age when checked
Under 24 hours old when checked
Where it spread
United States
Audience
US audience
Language
EN
Status
● Post is live
Verified
November 7, 2026, 15:00 UTC
Published
November 7, 2026, 15:00 UTC

Reach. Turley post 6,848 likes; origin clip post by @CollinRugg 16,721 likes; @libsoftiktok 19,662 likes; Cash App reply ('we are no longer sponsors of this podcast') 27,835 likes; Boll & Branch 13,897 likes

This verdict was generated with AI from the sources shown. AI can make mistakes — check the sources before relying on it.

Check anything yourself, in seconds.

Share any social post or video to What the Fact and get the verdict, the confidence, and the receipts.

Download on theApp StoreGet it onGoogle Play