Liberal Podcast Star Claims Charlie Kirk ‘Justified His Death’ by Being Pro-Second Amendment

Popular liberal podcaster Jennifer Welch argued slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk “justified his death” with his comments on gun ownership.

Welch made the claim in a video interview with ex-CNN anchor Don Lemon on her I’ve Had It podcast, which she co-hosts with Angie Sullivan, that was posted on Saturday.

Before sharing their thoughts, Welch played a clip of new CBS News boss Bari Weiss interviewing Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk earlier this week. Weiss asked what she would say to people who said Charlie Kirk “had it coming.”

“You’re sick. He’s a human being,” Erika Kirk said. “You think he deserved that? Tell that to my three-year-old daughter.”

Welch then said the premise of Weiss’ question was that Kirk’s critics had justified his death. She said the person who really did that, though, was Kirk, based on what he said.

“The person that I heard that justified his death was him,” Welch said about Kirk. “He’s the one that said on tape that if school kids die but it means he gets to have a Second Amendment, then that’s what it’s going to be. He’s the one that justified it.”

She seemed to be referencing the following quote from Kirk, which he made in 2023 at a Turning Point USA event:

I think it’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational.

Lemon then chimed in. He said he didn’t “know anyone who justified Charlie Kirk’s death,” before saying there was a lot of “nuance” to the topic.

Here is what he told Welch:

Everyone I know prefaces it the same way that you do — he should still be alive. The man should not be dead. However, it is true he promoted guns, he did not want sensible gun legislation, and he said that you have to have a certain amount of casualties, so to speak, in order to have a Second Amendment. He did say that. And he happened to die that way. That’s fact.

Lemon then commented on Erika Kirk’s recent media appearances, where she has cried while discussing her dead husband.

“There’s a lot, you know, if I can be honest, a lot of crying that seems kind of act-y to me,” Lemon said. “But look, as someone who has been in grief before, you don’t know how someone is going to act.”

Erika Kirk, during an appearance at Dealbook Conference in New York City earlier this month, said the murder of her husband has not changed her view on the Second Amendment.

She pointed to multiple factors that she believes spur shootings in the U.S., including poor mental health, anxiety, and depression — particularly among young Americans. Kirk said her husband felt the same way.

“What I’ve realized through all of this is that you can have individuals that will always resort to violence. And what I’m afraid of is that we are living in a day and age where they think violence is the solution to them not wanting to hear a different point of view,” she said.

Kirk continued, “That’s not a gun problem, that’s a human — deeply human — problem. That is a soul problem, that is a mental [problem], that is a very deeper issue.”

Watch Welch and Lemon discuss above.