Mark Halperin Analyzes Jennifer Welch's New York Times Profile After Attacks on Erika Kirk

[00:00] We have to get Mark Alpron's take on the

[00:03] New York Times's splashy profile of

[00:06] Jennifer Welch, host of the I've had it

[00:09] podcast. We've talked about her a couple

[00:10] of times. We can put F2 up on the

[00:12] screen. Uh this was a fairly uncritical

[00:15] profile that I think brought out some

[00:18] interesting notes in Jennifer Welch

[00:20] without devoting much skepticism or

[00:22] criticism at all uh to some of the

[00:26] obvious

[00:27] moral political flaws that Jennifer

[00:30] Welch brings to the table like this one.

[00:32] Let's go ahead and roll S2. Jennifer

[00:34] Welch talking about Charlie Kirk's

[00:36] grieving widow Erica Kirk.

[00:38] >> She is a grifter and just look at the

[00:40] costume changes. Look at the costume

[00:43] changes. Look at the affect and how she

[00:45] does that. It's wild. This woman should

[00:48] be kicked to the curb. She is an

[00:50] absolute grifter just like Donald Trump

[00:53] and just like her unrepentant racist

[00:56] homophobic husband was.

[00:59] So Welch of course also referred to

[01:01] Charlie Kirk after his assassination as

[01:02] a quote piece of [ __ ] And those

[01:04] comments came after Erica Kirk was

[01:06] talking about her position on government

[01:10] entitlement programs uh at the New York

[01:12] Times dealbook summit. Hardly

[01:16] controversial, hardly the type of stuff

[01:18] that would uh you make somebody of of

[01:21] pure heart go after the grieving widow

[01:23] of a slain political target. Mark, what

[01:25] do you think?

[01:26] >> I don't get that, lady. First of all, I

[01:29] don't think it's a Dealbook summit

[01:30] unless you're invited. That's just my

[01:33] general attitude. Um, [laughter]

[01:36] you know, it's one of the main I say

[01:39] main it's a big grievance of people on

[01:41] the right as you know that places like

[01:43] the New York Times write fawning

[01:45] profiles of people on the left and in

[01:47] this case of a of a lady who even before

[01:50] her latest outburst about Erica um Kirk.

[01:54] She's not very well-mannered. She's not

[01:56] very polite. She's a big potty mouth.

[01:58] And you know, the New York Times wants

[02:02] uh politics to be more gental, wants

[02:04] there to be less negativity. They don't

[02:06] like the president's use of negative

[02:08] stuff. And and this lady is uh second to

[02:11] none in saying things about people that

[02:14] are mean-spirited and gross. And um

[02:16] she's entitled to her First Amendment

[02:18] rights, but I don't know that she's

[02:19] entitled to a New York Times profile

[02:21] that glosses over her rudeness.

[02:23] >> And it really did. I mean, I have to say

[02:25] the New York Times surprised me a bit

[02:27] with this profile, and that may sound

[02:29] naive, but they have obviously been

[02:32] trying to prove that they're getting

[02:35] better. I put that in air quotes.

[02:37] They're they're obviously trying to make

[02:40] some inroads with the right again. And

[02:43] you know, Ross Dood is like their

[02:44] podcast star at [laughter] this point.

[02:46] And you know, Mark, as well as I do,

[02:48] that Jennifer Welch would be treated as

[02:51] a Christine O'Donnell like figure if she

[02:54] were on the left, and that's a call back

[02:56] because I think Welch is popular. Here,

[02:58] let me test my theory out on you. I

[02:59] think she's popular because she gets

[03:01] that the Democrats are in a Tea Party

[03:03] moment. And so few other podcasters have

[03:07] understood that yet. So, she has kind of

[03:09] sucked all the oxygen out of that hole

[03:10] in the market and uh they're they're

[03:13] left to put up with the rest of the

[03:14] baggage that comes with that. Yeah. Um I

[03:17] think you're right. I I think she's I'll

[03:19] I'll just say it a slightly different

[03:20] way, but I don't disagree with you. I

[03:22] think she's popular because she's part

[03:24] of that um we're not going to take it

[03:27] anymore. We're not going to sit back.

[03:28] Let's imitate Trump. It's it's it's

[03:31] parallel to what Gavin Newsome has done

[03:33] right on on X and social media, which is

[03:35] to basically say, "We're going to

[03:37] simultaneously mimic Trump and parody

[03:39] Trump. We're going to say outrageously

[03:41] mean and personal things." Um, regarding

[03:44] the New York Times, if I may,

[03:47] >> um, they've written two stories, uh,

[03:49] that I think are part of what you said,

[03:50] which is they really do seem to be

[03:52] making a self-conscious effort to on

[03:54] occasion

[03:56] act like they're not biased. Um, they

[03:58] wrote a long story about the the scandal

[04:00] in Minnesota over the the stealing of

[04:03] tax dollars by groups largely run by

[04:06] Somali Americans. And um and then they

[04:09] had a story uh two and a half years too

[04:11] late about Joe Biden's failed policy on

[04:13] the border. Um these are stories that I

[04:16] suspect are being uh cons, you know,

[04:19] called up by the editors to demonstrate

[04:22] fairness, but then they go and write a

[04:24] profile of someone who, again, if they

[04:26] were Republican, they would rip apart.

[04:27] Uh but she's a Democrat, so they write

[04:29] something relatively soft and gauzy

[04:31] about her.

[04:34] >> That's exactly what they did. Uh, and

[04:36] speaking of Charlie, Tim P, who's facing

[04:40] some security concerns uh, at his home

[04:44] in West Virginia, spoke out uh, a little

[04:48] bit about what effect the assassination

[04:50] of of Charlie Kirk has had on the

[04:54] broader right. So, let's go ahead and

[04:56] roll S3 here. Just this is just from the

[04:58] last couple of days. Temple.

[04:59] >> The assassination of Charlie Kirk,

[05:02] >> this is from today

[05:03] >> may be the most effective

[05:06] political assassination

[05:08] in our history because of conversations

[05:11] from many prominent individuals. I'm not

[05:13] singling out any one person. There are

[05:15] many people doing this.

[05:18] Turning Point USA has become the

[05:20] perpetrator

[05:23] of the crime against themselves.

[05:27] Turning Point USA

[05:30] would have been the principal

[05:33] organization

[05:35] to help Republicans win the midterms.

[05:39] With Charlie Kirk's death,

[05:42] we are now seeing disarray.

[05:45] But the fact now that Turning Point is

[05:47] viewed as the villain by so many people,

[05:49] especially on the right, it's going to

[05:52] hinder their ability to win a midterm.

[05:55] Democrats might actually win. Trump will

[05:57] get impeached and this means dark days

[06:01] indeed.

[06:03] >> So Tim's uh studio and home, it's kind

[06:07] of a compound outside of Harper's Ferry.

[06:09] He said that a car on December 5th, uh a

[06:12] car drove onto the property and opened

[06:15] fire. This is all being investigated

[06:16] right now, but he referred to the

[06:18] assassination of Charlie as the most he

[06:20] said it may end up being the most

[06:21] effective assassination in history in

[06:24] that clip, Mark. And I'm just curious if

[06:27] you've noticed any sense that or or any

[06:30] ways in which there's been a chilling

[06:32] effect. Is that real? Is that yet to

[06:34] come? Uh it's only been, you know, it's

[06:37] it's been such a short period of time

[06:38] since this happened.

[06:40] >> Yeah, look, there have been a lot of

[06:41] canceled events, quietly, privately

[06:43] canceled events. There's also people you

[06:46] and I both know who have kind of a

[06:48] fatalistic attitude which Charlie I

[06:50] think to some extent had which is to say

[06:52] you can only take so many precautions if

[06:54] it's going to happen unfortunately it's

[06:56] going to happen. I talked to someone

[06:58] today by coincidence who I'm not going

[07:00] to be super specific here, but he had

[07:02] his he his office was in a public uh

[07:05] office building, not a government

[07:06] building, [snorts] but there was a

[07:07] government official who had a district

[07:09] office in that building right across the

[07:11] hallway. And he quit his job and and

[07:14] went to work someplace else because he

[07:17] didn't want to be in that building

[07:20] because of of what happened to Charlie

[07:22] Kirk. Switched to a different office

[07:23] building. Um,

[07:25] I will say this also in terms of the

[07:28] impact that the assassination had, which

[07:29] is not a point that someone made to me.

[07:32] It's not my point originally, but I

[07:33] don't want to name the person who said

[07:34] it. Charlie was a genius and he was

[07:38] glue. Um, and now you see all of these

[07:43] fights of of of Laura Loomer and Tucker

[07:46] and Bannon uh and

[07:49] >> Candace, right,

[07:50] >> who I think Tim was alluding to in that

[07:52] clip.

[07:52] >> Yeah. So, I mean, you know, Candace and

[07:55] Charlie, I hear so many different things

[07:57] about sort of the status of things

[07:58] between them. Uh, you know, but but but

[08:02] Charlie, uh, you know, you know, Donald

[08:05] Trump always says, you know, when I was

[08:06] president, Putin didn't invade. And then

[08:08] when he Biden was president, Putin did.

[08:10] You know, is it a direct correlation?

[08:12] Who knows? But we can say this just as

[08:13] Trump can say they didn't invade on his

[08:15] watch. When Charlie was alive, the the

[08:18] the the controversies, the the the the

[08:21] contentiousness with Candace was tamped

[08:24] down. When Charlie was alive, the

[08:27] contentiousness with Tucker and with

[08:28] Nick Fuentes was tamped down. So, has

[08:31] this all broken out, at least on X uh

[08:34] MAGA on MAGA action? Has this broken out

[08:36] because Charlie's not here to keep the

[08:38] peace? I can't say for sure, but I can

[08:41] say the correlation seems pretty pretty

[08:43] exact.

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