Progressive Podcast Host Calls GOP Concern for Kids 'One of the Biggest Lies'

Jennifer Welch, host of the I've Had It podcast, said on the show that the idea that Republicans care about children is "one of the biggest lies." She argued that the same voters who call themselves pro-life back the guns that, in her telling, kill more young Americans than anything else. Federal mortality data supports that ranking for ages 1 to 19, the age range researchers usually use for children and teens.

The comments came in an episode built around listener videos, many of them explaining why the senders planned to vote in the midterms. Welch raised guns while responding to a listener video in which a nanny said she was voting for the kids' future. Gallup's October 2023 polling found that Republicans generally want gun laws kept as they are now.

Jennifer Welch on Guns and 'MAGA Christians'

The exchange began with a listener who gave her name as Avery. She said she was a nanny voting in the midterms because "I want to see a better future for the kids." Welch's co-host, Angie "Pumps" Sullivan, said it was "so interesting how many people are saying I want to make it better for the kids," while the people in power "don't give a fuck about the kids future."

Welch went further. "The one of the biggest lies is that Republicans and MAGA care about kids," she said, arguing that if they did, "the number one killer of kids in this country wouldn't be guns."

"The number one supporter of guns are the same people MAGA Christians are big gun nuts always always always always." — Jennifer Welch

She then turned to school safety drills. People who call themselves pro-life and pro-family, she said, were in effect saying, "let's have our kids practice getting shot a couple times a year." She added, "they can say whatever they want to say," but pointed to "their policies their votes." Of the people she knows, she said, they "would much rather have guns than prevent kids from being shot at school."

Welch then mocked a familiar gun-rights slogan. "You know what else makes me crazy," she said, before reciting "guns don't kill people." Sullivan finished the slogan with "crazy people that have guns" and then answered it herself: "if they didn't have the guns." She said that "every time I pick up my phone and I see more mass shooting I get more defeated." Welch ended the segment by going after pastors: "if these church leaders these evangelical church leaders cared about human life as they did they would be talking about these things."

What CDC Data Shows About Guns and Child Deaths

Researchers usually define "children and teens" as ages 1 to 19. That range leaves out infants, whose deaths have different causes. In that group, firearms became the most common cause of injury death beginning in 2017, PolitiFact reported. In 2021, guns killed 4,733 people ages 1 to 19, compared with 4,048 killed in vehicle crashes, PolitiFact found when it rated a similar claim "Mostly True."

PolitiFact noted that firearm deaths show up in several CDC categories, with accidents, homicides and suicides each including some. More recent figures from America's Health Rankings, which compiles CDC WONDER data, count firearm deaths of any intent. By that measure, the firearm death rate for ages 1 to 19 was 5.5 per 100,000 for 2022 through 2024.

There are two caveats. The CDC classifies firearms as a "mechanism" of injury, not one of its official cause-of-death categories. And the ranking holds for the age range as a whole, not for every age within it. For children ages 3 to 12, PolitiFact noted, firearms ranked sixth.

Where Voters Stand on Gun Laws

Welch's argument tracks one of the country's sharpest partisan divides. A Gallup survey released in November 2024 found 56 percent of Americans favored stricter gun laws.

The split by party is wide. Gallup's October 2023 poll found Democrats overwhelmingly wanted stricter laws, while Republicans generally wanted them kept as they are. It also found the gap had widened over two decades. Gun-rights advocates reject the idea that access to guns, rather than the person firing, drives such violence. Welch and Sullivan ridiculed that argument on air. No Republican or gun-rights voice appeared in the episode.

What Happens Next

Democrats lead PolitiKool's polling average of the generic congressional ballot by 8.5 points, 48.9 percent to 40.4 percent.