IHIP News - Exposing MAGA's Biggest Hypocrisy | Not Today, Fascists LIVE!

Episode Date: October 9, 2026

A very special Friday Treat with  @TheDonLemonShow  . Order our new book, join our Substack, shop our merch, and more by clicking here: https://linktr.ee/ivehaditpodcast. Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ5cvDR2HhVUcdVoTvvQKLw/join Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Your first Spotify ad is just a few clicks away. Launch a campaign today in minutes with Spotify Ads Manager. Welcome, welcome Welch's Lemonade viewers and listeners. Don and I were unable to connect in studio this week, but we did connect in person on stage in Boston for my not today fascist book tour. And we had it recorded so that those of you that couldn't come to one of the stops could see Don and I serve up the Welch's Lemonade. So here it is.

Enjoy. Leave us a comment and tell us what you think. And I hope you have started reading the book and leave me a comment there and let me know what you think of that. Enjoy. Oh my gosh. I love this crowd. Wow. Hey, y'all.

We're Southerners. Hey, y'all. I love Boston. You guys are feisty and ready to just. Wait, you all have cocktails? Jen? Don. You're sober.

I need, I could have to have a had a martini. Oh, somebody needs to bring you a cocktail. Bring this man a cocktail. Let's get him all liquored up. How about a cock and a tail? You guys are going to get inside of our little fun thing. Jen, I'm going to talk to you about the book. Let's do it.

Real quick, though. Can we just do some of these questions? The audience questions. I was going over some of the audience questions in the thing, and I was like, how much time do you want afterwards or whatever? We talked. And then I looked at the questions, I'm like, these are freaking great. You guys are great.

You're on the chair. Let's see. Let's see. This one is funny. Can you please tell us why asking for the gays? Why are you not gay? You know, my husband, Josh, is here. Where is he?

So, you know, I often thought when Josh and I had a lot of marital problems, I thought it would be so much better if I was a lesbian. I would love to have a wife right now, but for me it just wasn't a choice unlike, you know,

a lot of these Republican men that choose to be straight. And so I didn't have that choice like Mike Johnson, Josh Hawley, and others. A couple more. A couple more. A couple more. This is be quick and then we're going to get to the thing. Can you use, by the way, where's the bartender? If the bartender's out there,

dirty martini vodka up dry. Very, very icy. Get this man a drink. Very dirty. Okay, of course, very dirty. Can you use pussy taint pimple as a nickname for a kank cabinet member? A kink's cabinet movie. Pussy taint pimple? Pussy taint pimple as a nickname. Oh, that is a really great nickname. name. Pussy, taint, nibble. I think that's got to go to Stephen Miller.

Right? All right, I'm moving on. Okay, okay. Okay, here you go. This is the same question. Someone said, two people said, just how teeny is Trump's itsy-bitsy-bitsy-weeny. And then someone else says,

how big do you think it is in inches? Oh, well, I know the answer to this question. So Stormy Daniels was on Jimmy Kimmel. And he gave her a tray of mushrooms to pick from at various sizes. And the one that she picked, it was like a little nubbin. It was not impressive, which I think is a lot of the problems that we're facing right now. You know, like Pete Hagseth constantly talking about testosterone, it's like, okay, so he went to the doctor. The doctor's like, you have low tea.

And so now he wants to get everybody else dosed up on testosterone because he's clearly either, I think there's two scenarios for Pete Heckseth. We're dealing with a quick shot or a soft serve. One of the two, because why is he so obsessed with testosterone? Or both. It can be both. They're not mutually exclusive. Okay.

So, you, fascists, people don't like to be called two words, I believe. Well, three, if you're a Republican, you don't like to be called gay, and if you are. fascists and racist, and you intentionally used fascist for the cover, for the name of this book. So I started writing this book about a year ago, and I knew what I wanted to be about, like, how I informed my politics growing up in an Uber red state with progressive parents that were atheists. All of my friends were Bible thumpers trying to get me saved all the time. I'm like, save from what? And so we were troubleshooting names with my editor, and they came up with some stuff,

and I was just like, no, it's got a bite. And then I was like, it's going to come to me. So then I called him, and I was like, I have it. With Export Development Canada, Canadian businesses are competing, leading, and winning in more international markets, like how agri-food businesses are strengthening global food supply and critical minerals are powerful.

powering industries of the future, their ambition can't be contained. And with EDC behind them, neither can their growth. Export Development Canada is the financial partner for Canadian businesses going global. Visit EDC.ca for more. Not today fascists, which is kind of an ode to the not today Satan that a lot of women in the Bible Belt say when they probably think about doing naughty things. And so, and Harper Collins was great, because I didn't know if they would push back on it, but I knew I was going to

like, I am naming it this, but I wanted to specifically name it that because they are fascists. We're sitting next to a journalist that they went after. That's fascism. Free Don Lemon! They are shooting people in the streets

and then calling them a fucking bitch and then calling them terrorists and then moving their murderers just to another place. It's kind of like what the Catholic church did. You know, like, here's this pedophile. We'll just move him over here. That's what they're doing with these souped up, toxic, masculine men that are so incredibly broken. And all of these people want to rearrange the world order because they're so broken instead of going to fucking therapy.

You know, like a lot of times I want to use some deep, intellectual, nuanced thing about these people, but my God. I mean, these are like just such bottom feeders. And it's, as Josh, my husband always says, like, it's painful to wake up and watch people celebrate the evil, cruel, bad people. And that's what we have to do every day. You and I are both from the South, and we, growing up in the South, I saw a lot of hypocrisy, a lot of racism, a lot of people who say that they are Christian-like, and they turn out to be the worst. of the people who are, of just people. And you are atheist. Yep.

How did you grow up in the South as an atheist and come to have these views that are so progressive and quite frankly the right views I believe people should have? Thank you. So it was hard because in the Bible Belt, you guys are so lucky up here. There was this meme after the election. And it showed the state of Oklahoma

which is where I lived since I was seven years old, and the state of Massachusetts. And every county in Massachusetts was blue, and every county, and Oklahoma was red. And then it ranked education, and it ranked health care, and it ranked all of these things. And Massachusetts was always a top ten,

a lot of times a top three state. Oklahoma was a bottom ten, a lot of times a bottom three state. And the Republican Party has brilliantly injected their politics into Christianity into the South. Like growing up, anybody that I met was a Christian, it was a foregone conclusion that Republican was a huge part of their identity, and they got it at their churches.

And I remember driving, you can just like drive a yard in Oklahoma, and then there's a church. And they have these, and the architecture's terrible, but that's another thing. But they have this shitty architecture, and they have these hideous marquies, and, you know, like the angels, you know, like, the marquee, it's just really disturbing. And the marquee would say, vote for George Bush today

at the church. And so these things are so enmeshed. But to Don's point, I always knew, and my mother always told me, the bigger the Christian, the bigger the secrets. So when Christy Noam and her husband, you know, she wears the big cross, right? All those MAGA women have those big crosses. And she really talks a lot about her faith. Well, Turns out she's banging Corey Lewandowski, allegedly. And her husband, for a fact, is Big Titty Brian in the basement with his big old balloon titty's panties on. And when that happened, I go, perfect.

That is the perfect MAGA family. They are not an outlier. They are not. I'm just telling you guys in the Bible Belt, you know, what's that show where the hunting wives where all these Republican women are shooting shit and fucking each other behind their husbands. But that is, that stuff is so real in the Bible Belt. And I think Donald Trump normalizes and brought into the light, this permission structure that they've seen from their evangelical preachers. And think about the comparison of an evangelical preacher in Donald Trump, a televangelist

in Donald Trump. It's the same fucking. thing. The swoopy hair. I was going to say the same damn hair. I grew up with Jimmy Swagger. He is totally Jimmy Swagger. I have sin against you, my Lord. Anybody old enough to remember that when he got caught with the hooker? Yes, exactly. And what was the one that did the, he was, he did the poppers with gay men and. Oh, Ted Haggard. Ted Haggard. And so this is, it's just the louder the Christian, the bigger the freak every single time. And I'm not saying people, a lot of people are Christians, and it isn't their whole mission to convert everybody in a

compulsive way. It's just something that's theirs personally, and I mean, no disrespect to that. But where I grow up, these Christians are psychos, and they are organized, and they are stupid, and they are dangerous, and they are ambitious. And they have ascended to the White House now, where you have Paula White, who speaks in tongues on a Tuesday at the White House. That is crazy shit. Do you remember doing Africa during COVID when she was like, the angels are coming from Africa, from Africa? Do you guys remember that?

And she started doing that crazy shit? She gets up every day and goes to work at the White House, that woman. That's where we are. Oh, my gosh. We have a saying when you said the bigger, the Christian, the bigger. the bigger the secret, the bigger the freak. The gays have the bigger the body, the bigger the bottom. So to the point of what I just asked, and more to the point, someone asked this question.

It says, how did you become such a brave, badass bitch? And that's what I wanted to ask, coming from Oklahoma. I think it comes from growing up in a place where I was very judged for not being religious. My mother was a closeted atheist her entire life. And I remember the pressure to, and I wanted to get along with my friends, and they were all super religious, like pray at the flagpole before school, but I was never indoctrinated. And so then I would go to their church with them,

and the preachers are just nuts and the tongue talking and all this stuff. And I'd go home to my mother, and she'd be like, I told you not to go, Jennifer. And I think that, not having the split screen of having these friends and their worldview that their parents taught them was this big. These are the things you can believe and you have to have blind obedience and you cannot question it. And if you question it, it's a sin. And like my first boyfriend got grounded for six months because his mother caught him masturbating.

I mean, that's just like incredibly crazy shit, right? I would still be in time out. my entire existence would be in time But my friends grew up with this paranoia That God is like surveilling their every single thought All the time 24-7 And they told me like if you If you think about kissing a boy

That's the same as kissing a boy And that's a sin And then you're going to go to hell And I would just like be around them at slumber parties I'd go home and my mother'd go oh for God's sakes that's ridiculous of course kids are going to screw they've got hormones pumping through them but she also set incredible thought-provoking moral examples for me and my dad was like browbeating her like linda you need to have friends and she's like they're all these crazy Christians I'm fine with my

books and so she joined a bunco group do you remember in the 90s late 80s of the bunko group so she joins a bunko group with all of these women and they're all bunko some dies game. Yeah. And all of the women in her Bunko group are like total Bible thumpers. And she comes home one day and she goes, well, I had just had it, Jennifer. That's where I got the, I've had it. It's from my mother. My mother's from Dallas and she has this great accent. She comes home and she goes, well, I've just had it with those ladies, Jennifer. And I said, what happened? She said, well, they were just wound up like a cheap clock over this Abercrombian Fitch ad because they thought the pictures were too revealing. And I just finally said, well, what's more morally egregious to me

is that all of those clothes were made in a sweatshop with probably child labor law violations. And that's when she taught me, like, who cares about the skin being exposed? But look at what's happening to these laborers and them being exploited. And then at the same time, she pointed out the religious hypocrisy in that, that these women that claim to be these big, pro-life followers of Jesus, you know, where the guy in the Bible is all about like hanging out with the poor, lifting them up, opposes the accumulation of wealth. And so I lived with these parents that taught these deeper lessons in this major split screen because the minute I left my home and I would go out with my friends again, then it would all start again. Like, you know, Jennifer,

if you don't get saved, Satan's coming for you. And I'm just like, okay. And then immediately when I graduated from high school. Guess who I found in college? The gays. Oh, yeah. Oh, that devil. I hung out with gay men in the early 90s and still do, and it was heaven. Because the same people who had bullied me for not being a Christian in Oklahoma when I made my way to the University of Oklahoma, all of those same people had bullied gay people. And I don't think people understand, like, in the Bible Belt growing up, if you're an atheist, it is like, I mean, my mother was scared to tell anybody because she was just so in the closet about it. And I think I thought, I'm never going to be that way because all of the Christians I hung around were so morally depraved, like truly, truly morally depraved. And I felt like my parents who are still married, by the way,

and living and all of that, I felt like they taught me a much better moral center. And my friend's world was this big, and my mom was like, you can ask any question you want, any question you want and we'll we'll go get the encyclopedia and read about it because we didn't have the internet back then that was one of the questions i i didn't i don't have it i it said um is anything or anyone off limit however you just answered that it's not right so it's the the subtitle the book is the lies that got us here and the truths that will reunite us and i think this is this a book of

lessons it's like the bible it's a book of lessons right it's jennifer's spying Bible. But the people ask very similar questions, and I'll ask, this is a series of them. Someone says, how do I speak with, um, from Nick? How do I speak with my parents about politics when they are victims of right wing media? Thanks. And then someone else says, I just broke off my relationship with one of my closest family members. I feel like shit, but I know what I did was for the best. What do I do now? And someone says, advice for the liberal atheist

black sheep of the family with a MAGA dad. People want advice from you about how to deal with their MAGA relatives or friends. You know, how I would always approach this when I lived in Oklahoma full time is when people center their

like for, I don't know if those people are religious, but let's say they're all about freedom. So if they're talking, well, I want people to be free, and I like America because it's free and we care about freedom, then I would approach it as, why do some people get more freedoms than you? Like, if somebody gay marries,

how does that affect your straight marrying? Like, why don't you just not gay marry then? But it takes a lot to tick away at it. The best example I can give you guys is Angie Pumps, the co-host of the podcast. She was very Republican, very Christian. and our kids were really good friends when they were really little and we had.

But a lot of times I would kind of have to pull back from her and her friend group because I was like, God, these women. But they would all talk, it was during Obama, and I would say, are you guys for universal health care? And they'd all say, nope, we should come up from Bible study. What are you doing? I'm like, oh, I'm going to go like make phone bank for Obama.

I'm like, ugh, Obama. I was like, well, aren't you for universal health care? No. And I'm like, would Jesus be? because I thought he was kind of about that. And they immediately get super defensive, but Angie describes it now that another funny story is, like, I remember we took our kids to the Dinosaur Museum,

and Angie thought the Earth was 6,000 years old, and that people lived to be 900. And so as we're walking through, I'm like, pretty interesting that that dinosaur was like 450 million years ago. Do you guys remember? on CNN when Don would get all liquored up on New Year's? Oh, that's good. It's real dirty.

Like me. But right-wing media is tough. And they did a study. They made some Fox viewers not watch Fox for 30 days. And they had to watch like CNN or MS now. And after the 30 days, they interviewed these participants in the study. and they had dropped a lot of the propaganda. And then they started to actually realize, like, yeah,

I realized that that was a lot of propaganda, and they were lying. But once the study was over, they all went back to it. They raced back to it like a drug. And I just saw a recent study. I don't know if you saw this in the news, that I hate for somebody who said, your MAGA family members, but I'm just going to say it. Like, the one link psychiatrists are finding is authoritarian personalities,

personalities and they're psychopaths. There's just an appetite for cruelty in MAGA Republicans. You know this from living in the South. These people like the recreational cruelty. They enjoy it. They enjoy feeling better. They enjoy feeling superior. The white supremacy thing in the South is a real, real thing.

I mean, it is a real thing. They're very threatened by black gay men, obviously. But the thing is, is that you get so used to it by living there, even if you're in it, you're co-opted. You don't necessarily understand it. So when I got ready to leave in my early 20s, I remember one of my good friends that I had gone to college with. And I went to pick him up from his restaurant, his family owned. And he said, oh, damn, Daryl's going on. And I said, who's Darrell?

And he's just, we're riding in my Jeep. And he goes, oh, just one of the niggers that work for us. and I said, you know what, I got to get the fuck out of here. And I loaded up the truck and I moved to... Move to Beverly. I moved to Beverly. But you loaded up the truck and you moved to New York. Was it because you were sick of it?

You needed a change. Yeah. After we raised our kids, our youngest son went off last year to USC. And I just thought, I'm not doing this anymore. I had campaigned for Democrats in Oklahoma. I threw political fundraisers for them. This whole Trump thing felt different. It didn't feel like George W. Bush, who I fucking hated.

I mean, I hated him back in the day. I mean, Josh and I hated him, and we would like freebase you and John Stewart to try to feel like a sense of normalcy. But this, for me, this stuff with Trump isn't political. It's moral. Yes. We're not talking about politics anymore. These are moral issues of our time that what they're doing, did you see Sam Alito? I mean, Band-Aids off.

Now he says he wants to reverse Obergerfeld, which is the gay marriage. And we knew that, but I just couldn't. I was in this pickleball group, and I'd love to play pickleball, an athlete, right? And so there was about five lesbians in the group and five straight women. Lesbians are better athletes, too. I just want to say that. It's just true. That's my anecdotal on the ground evidence.

That hand-eye coordination, the cat, like, they were really good. But anyway, there was about two or three women in the group that, as we went to the 2024 election, that I knew voted for Trump. And it just enraged me, like the fucking hypocrisy of these bitches to show up and hug these lesbians. Many of them were married to each other and give them a little. a hug. Hi, honey, how are you? It's good to see you. And tell them you love them and then go vote for somebody that will hurt them. And that's the majority of the people in Oklahoma. And Josh and I get so

fucking mad about it. Like Josh, this last weekend, he goes, I'm going to tell you, I just had about a great hour. And I go, what did you do? He goes, I entered Fox News and my Instagram, went to mutuals. I clipped 100 people that I used to follow. Then I did Trump. Then I did Ivanka. Then I did. then I did Don Jr., then I did Erica Kirk, then I did Charlie Kirk, and I said, you know what, I'm going to do the same. And a lot of these friends that I had had for 20-plus years in Oklahoma, a political difference I could get past it. I could still follow them.

I cannot follow people that support this regime. It is a moral issue for me. We do the same thing. I call it a regime because it's unlike, look, I've been around longer than you. I've been on this earth for 60 years, and I've seen a lot of, a lot of things. And I, um... Look at Don.

That chocolate, that chocolate skin. I know some of you are looking for a daddy. I am a zaddy. You are a zaddy. I am rich. And I am married. Yeah. Well, my husband wouldn't say that, I think.

Anyways. So I've seen a lot of things. And I don't understand anyone who is attracted to this MAGA thing. I can see conservatives. There are my people I grew up with in the South are conservative. African Americans can be conservative. But anyone who is gay or black and who is MAGA with all of this insulting politics for people who believe that you should not exist or shouldn't have that your voting ability of power should not be the same as theirs, I don't understand it.

It's like masochism to me. It is. And so when I met you, I was like, finally a kindred spirit, a breath of fresh air. Help me. Come move to New York. I was so fucking happy when you moved to me. I know. I have been so happy living in a blue state on the East Coast.

Not one person in one year has asked me where I go to church. For the first time in my life, I have gone 300. in 65 days consecutively. And that question has not come up. But I want to say something to your point, Don. You said you didn't understand how people that are black or people that are gay or people that are maybe Latino could support Trump. And something that I think those of us that are white have to do.

Donald Trump is the symptom of white people. White women, white men elected him. And I want all of us fine white people. people in here. I see a lot of white faces. To be really fucking loud. When you think about the civil rights movement, you think about these brave civil rights activists that marched on the bridge, and you see the iconic photographs, all of these black faces. This moment, we need to rectify this. Amen. White people did this shit.

Well, black people are tired. Girl, who are telling? No, I had a very similar question that I was doing the Institute of Politics at Harvard yesterday. There's humble brag. No, I'm kidding. Name dropper. And someone asked me, they were upset with Kamala about something. And I said, well, I'm not going to, it's not the black woman's fault that people have been fighting in the Middle East for centuries.

It's not. So, you know, don't take your frustrations out on her. But you're right. Black, we're tired. Yeah. Because we're always kind of the target of people. And especially MAGA in this moment, it's diversity, the first fucking thing they did, they said when they, diversity equity inclusion, we're getting rid of it. Two planes collide in the sky has nothing to do with diversity equity and inclusion. Where they come out, it's because of DEI. And it's like, what are you talking about? The pilots were white. Like, what is, like, what are you talking about? Yeah.

I mean, it's, it's literally. But it's just their way of saying the N word, DEI. The way they say it now when you hear Pete Hegg says, we're doing a way with woe. and DEI, and it's just a way. I mean, I think we're a couple, oh, little Pete Hagseth. Come on. I'm telling you, quick shot. Anybody that's that. Soft serve. But you know what it is. It's weird that I'm going to say this, but I understand it.

I understand that if you are a person who has had the preeminent voice, right, that society in the world has gone your way. you have someone like a Trump who believes that it's his birthright. And then you get someone like Obama comes along and then outdoes him and shows him up or Westmore. And so he gloms on to that and he makes people believe, especially men of all different ethnicities, but especially white men, this is your birthright. And if you have not reached a certain station in life or you haven't achieved something that you thought you should achieve, it's a woman's fault. it's that other person's fault because that's your birthright. It's the black person's fault because that's your birthright.

It's a Latino person, the migrant, the immigrant's fault. And so if you haven't achieved something, it's not you, it's somebody else. And then you buy into that, yeah, that's right. And this person is fighting for me rather than, it's a similar analogy. If you live in coal country, instead of being retrained, it's somebody else's fault. and we must have these jobs because we've always had them. Right.

It's the same thing that you don't have to change even though the world changes around you. Yeah. So anyway, that's my analogy. And that's why people are attracted to Donald Trump. It's somebody else's fault. The other eyes people.

Yeah. So, Jen Welch, how surreal is all of this to you? Did you ever envision being the voice for so many? And then? someone says how did you get so fucking awesome

and do you know how many middle-aged women would die for you? Oh my God so and finally finally I'm doing a series because there are many of these that are very similar when are you running for president

we love you Tracy is that Tracy I should wear my glasses is that tasty or Tracy is it Tracy yeah Tracy Anna and Terry so how does this moment feel for you because you've really created a movement

you really have you know it's wild because when we by the way by the way I loved home sweet home would you ever do another reality show with comps or whatever and so that's part of the same thing so how does this feel? No I never do another reality television show but it was fun

I don't have I don't regret doing it but I wouldn't do it against a lot of work people follow you everywhere you go it's really a nuisance. But I never imagined that I would sit down and interview Barack Obama. I never imagined I'd be on the stage right now with Don Lemon. Like, I spent so much time with Don Lemon before he was my friend. Like, I would be all fluffed up in bed and Don Lemon would be on CNN and the boys or Josha come up like, Don Lemon's on. And, you know, so that's, it's very surreal, but now, I mean, we're buddies, and it's so, and he's everything in real life that you want

him to be, smells good, and he's nice. He's my gay husband. Josh is my real husband. I showered for you today. I changed my underwear's. Thank you. But when we first started doing the podcast, it was just about grievances. Biden was president, you know, we were able to talk about petty things. And then as the Trump and the primary started really escalating, I've always been incredibly political. Like to know me, if you would have known me 20 years ago, 30 years, I'm like, oh, that bitch, you will not shut up about politics. So I was an interior designer, but I would go home and I was a diehard political junkie, probably like all of you, your political junkies.

And I started talking about politics on that podcast, and a lot of people said, don't. you shouldn't talk about that. You have a good thing going. Don't talk about politics. And the more they set down, the more I was like, I'm going to do it. I'm going to talk about it. And I couldn't, it felt wrong to sit and talk about the petty things. Not that they're not important, not that we can't walk and shoot gun, but I was seeing what was happening and how people, after what we saw on January 6th, what we saw, and the Supreme Court was letting you.

him off the hook, the Republicans were all falling in line, they were going to hang fucking Mike Pence, a white Christian Republican dork. Foot soldier for Donald Trump, they wanted to hang him. And I was like, this is terrible. If the straight white, straight, white Republican, Christian men like Mike Pence aren't safe, I sure is fucking not safe. So I'm going to start talking about politics. And it made a lot of people uncomfortable. There's a big heartbreak hotel because I think a lot of people that first listened to the podcast because we were bitching about stuff not very politically correct, calling out just, you know, nuisances in life. And I think that once we started talking about politics, there would be just a lot of pissed off white women in the comment section.

You need to quit talking about politics. I was like, okay, Karen, we'll curate the podcast for you next Thursday. Tuesday's episode really riled Karen up, so we better curate it for her. So I, and Angie was a little more uncomfortable. because she's still kind of evolving in her politics. But I would just go. And then the more I spoke about politics, then you kind of drop the entertainment fans and then you get real, like, you guys, like stands.

Is it called a Stan? Yeah, Stan. And because I think you know, if you listen to me, like, I believe it. I have really big convictions about it. And I have seen how horrible Republican supermajorities. are. I've seen it. I mean, in Oklahoma in the early 2000s, we had a Democratic governor, Don. We were ranked 17th in education. We've had a Republican supermajority since then. We're ranked 50th in education, 50th. And now the first taxpayer-funded religious school, the Supreme Court

just greenlit for Oklahoma. Like, these people need more of that shit. But I know that that's what's coming for people. And so I couldn't help but speak out about it. Well, you are a real stand, as they say. I call you a real stand, but you're a real ally. And people say that they're allies. And I think gay people, men know we hear that word all the time. And sometimes it means nothing. Oh, I'm an ally.

And then they don't, you know, walk the walk and talk to talk. And you do it. And like unafraid in front of the camera out loud. And we appreciate you for that. I know I appreciate you. Thank you. Now, I think one of the first things that I said to you is I came on your podcast and I talked about, I had a book and I talked about the line between church and state being not just blurred, but being erased, right? And a lot of it had to do with religious nationalism and just pushing religion onto our politics and into our laws.

And I'm a person of faith. and what she she doesn't she's not she doesn't offend me at all because she's an atheist I don't wear my religion on my sleeve right so I grew up a Christian but you know live and let live right so talk to me about the blurring of that line and what you think is happening with religious nationalism in this country so I think that right now you have strange bedfellows you have the Christian nationalist movement which started back you know Reagan or maybe even before then. These are the people that brilliantly injected Republican politics into churches. And I told you the marquee that I would drive by and say vote for George W. Bush. What they want is they want

moral control over people. I believe they want this control over people because they themselves are broken. I think that that sect of evangelical Christianity is inherently abusive. It tells little kids when they're first born, you're born bad. You're a bad person. The only way you can be a good person is to be saved. That's kind of fucked up to tell a little kid. You know, you're really bad, in my opinion. And I have a lot of anecdotal evidence growing up around these broken people. And so broken people want to break things. But mainly these evangelicals, too, it's a business. It's big church. And they are grifters, extraordinary. And they know if they keep their flock stupid and obedient, then they come each Sunday and Wednesday in tithe, and then they preach this

bullshit prosperity gospel. Well, what do they have in common with Elon Musk? He's clearly not religious, or Sam Altman, or any of these people. Well, they too want power and control. And all of these people want to plunder, and that's what fascists do. They plunder. They use all of our resources, and they immediately start plundering everything. So it's a a really strange thing when you think about how Donald Trump, who is not religious at all, I mean, he believes in himself, and that's it, and self-preservation for himself, and that's it. And then you have all of these evangelicals that literally think he's like, he's our imperfect vessel. Okay, well, if God's like so great, couldn't you have picked a better vessel than that fucking

pig? I mean, you know, like, y'all are making, I mean, y'all are making my case for being an atheist even more, that's his best pick. But all of these people are colluding together right now because they want to plunder our rights, our resources, our money, and you're starting to see something come

into focus where you're seeing AI is now courting evangelical pastors in Silicon Valley. And you heard Joe Rogan recently say, well, maybe the second coming of Christ is AI. Well, what a great way to indoctrinate people via AI because you saw what happened to Elon Musk and his AI robot

Grock. He gave it a lobotomy and people were asking it, who's a better athlete, LeBron James or Elon Musk, and the fucking AI robot said Elon Musk, which is objectively false. Clearly, LeBron James is a better athlete. So I'm very terrified that when you see the evangelicals couple with anybody, it's never good. It's never good. And the evangelical church movement is wrought with just so much grifting, sexual abuse scandals. I mean, you name it. It's all there. But primarily, they want to control, they want to indoctrinate people at a young age. That's exactly what the Trump regime wants to do. We like the poorly educated. The Republican, party wants to keep a dumb electorate because people that are smart and thinking would never go vote

for this. And the tech oligarchs are also their strange bedfellow in this. And I write about all of this in my book because they want to take our jobs. It's not enough. What Elon Musk has because a trillion dollars, they're some hundreds of billions of dollars. They want more. So they're going to have their agents, the AI agents, take our jobs, our wages, and they're building bunkers. And guess who else is building a bunker? Donald Trump? Fat-ass Donald Trump. He is. Yeah. With lasers and all kinds of Jewish space lasers on the ceiling outside of the ballroom. You know, I'm very loyal, and I get mad at people when I hear the right-wing fascist assholes on Fox News and others talk shit about you. Oh, they get mad at me on Foxx.

So do you, does it get to you when you're attacked? No. Elon Musk has tweeted about me a few times, and I'm always just kind of fascinated by that. I'm like, hmm, so you're a trillionaire, and I hurt your feelings? I mean, like, seriously. I mean, it's insane.

And then when I hear Jesse Waters or Greg Gutfeld go on about me, I get tickled by it, but what happens after that is terrifying. And you know this. Whenever you are highlighted in right-wing media, whether it be Fox News or Elon Musk tweets you, you get these degenerates that send you messages of death threats on yourself, on your family, threats of sexual violence. They mail letters to my home, to my office. They call my husband's law office.

They find out where your cell phone numbers are. They've done this to Don, too. They are depraved. But here's the fundamental difference between me and every other motherfucking pussy Republican in Congress. I will not let these people bully me into not living my life and standing up for what is right. All of these Republicans could end this. The guys who are all fiscal, we're fiscally conservative. We love the troops.

We are so good at business. It's all bullshit. wealth never trickles down. They're all fucking liars. And they have lied, lied, lied for decades. And the fact that none of them have any balls to end this guy right now, they could have ended it. And they refuse to do it because they're scared of the same people that bully a 52-year-old interior designer from Oklahoma. And I'm on stage now. You are not 52 years old. Look at that. Look at that Charlie's Angel's hair. Freeze. Come on, do it for me.

Speaking of billionaires, this is from the audience. Okay. Who are your favorite billionaires? Oh, well, it would be McKenzie Scott Bezos. Who would you rather fuck? You guys are so horny. Okay, Lauren Boebert. Lauren Scissor, Bobobert.

There's a scissor question in here. Oh, my God. God. For you. But anyways, who would you rather fuck? DJT or Elon? Oh, that's really tough. I think I have to go...

She's really pressed by this. I think I have to go Elon. And then I would take a Silkwood shower afterwards. Do you all remember that from the 80s, that Karen Silkwood, maybe? Do you remember that? I would have to take a Silkwood shower. shower immediately. Look it up. Okay. I love these questions. Do you mind that I'm giving the question? Oh my God. No, I love the audience questions. When Hunter Biden was on your podcast, he mentioned the closetocracy but didn't give any names.

Is there anyone you think is in that that you would least expect? Now, he gave names on my show, remember? Oh, yes. Yeah. So, but I won't give them, but you tell me what you think. Which one is in there you would least expect. That would least expect. I heard this on your show. Was it Kevin McCarthy? Oh, no, but I'm not surprised. I've heard that. He said, if you remember, for those of you who watched, I said, I asked him and he goes, Don, I've been sued too many times. I can't. And he said, are you asking me if Mike Johnson is gay? Her obvious ones. And I said, yes. The one that I didn't expect that, and he said, are you asking me if Josh Hawley is gay? And then I've always thought it and I went, yeah.

For sure. Girl, my gator are pings every time I see him. Oh. Also, and he said, are you asking me if Stephen Miller is gay? My gait are pings with Stephen Miller. It always has. Always has. When he would come on my show, I'm like, I think he's hitting on me.

I think Mark Wayne Mullen, did you see? He gave a speech recently where he was like, I mean, there's only two genders. Like, I'm married my wife, and it wasn't hard. And I'm like, you're sure acting like it was hard. Like, why are they constantly trying to prove their heterosexuality? It's fucking weird. And I think people that wake up every day and think about gay sex are gay.

I just don't think that's that big of a stretch to make. If you're thinking about gay marriage, if you're thinking about gay sex, you want to legislate about these things. and that consumes your thoughts, you're gay. You hang out with a lot of gays, right? And so I can go to parties, my friends, dinner parties, whatever, and we go all night and not talk about gay sex, and then I go home and, like, flip it over on the news. It's all they talk about.

That's all they talk about. I'm like, what's wrong with these horny people? Well, y'all know, for those of you that listen a lot, and them talking about trans people all the time. So there was a study that they looked up to see where the most, trans porn was consumed. And so they put the map up. And of course, I'm like zeroing in on all these places.

All these red counties popped up all over the place. Number one in the country, Lotton, Oklahoma, which is a military town, lots of big bubbas. But there's a very fine line between a, I think you and I talked about this. We talked about this on our podcast. There's a very fine line. if you go to a country and music boot and scoot bar, which in Oklahoma, we have these, and you go two-step and right, and if you go to a straight two-step and bar, you see the cowboys, and they're in their wranglers, and these wranglers are skin-tight, and they have that belt on, and with the big medallion right here,

and, I mean, they are cinched up, and the cowboy hat, and they're twirling around. Then I would go with my gay friends to the gay scoot-in boot, and I'm like, there's a real fine line between, The straight cowboy and the gay cowboy. I mean, it's, and then if you go to, like, rural Oklahoma where you see, like, these female cowgirls, and then you go to, like, a, you know, college softball game. There's a real, and so my point with this is, a lot of stuff is not as binary as the Republicans want it to be. Sometimes people are super tomboy. Sometimes people are super famed.

But who gives a fuck? Yeah. You know, like, but they do. let me tell you I'm here for a straight or gay in the tight wrangler jeans again but I will say I mean we don't care the thing is is that if you are good the hypocrisy is the thing that we care about we love a good gay we love a good lesbian yeah yeah but just don't be a hypocrite and if somebody is living their life passively in the closet like when I was in college a lot of my friends were terrified to tell their parents that they were gay and this is like at peak AIDS epidemics early 90s.

And I remember they were so scared. Like, Jennifer, I'm going home this weekend to some small town in Oklahoma. And they'd just be crying. I'm going to go tell my parents, come back to college. Your parents refuse to speak to them again. And so then after that, they were kind of fearful to be even more out. If somebody's passively in the closet and you live in a rural town or a red state, I don't care.

That's your business. That's not nobody else's business. But if you're the speaker of the house and you have pray the gay away clinics all over the place, your number one goal in life before you were Speaker of the House was pray the gayaway clinics and you and your son monitor each other's porn

so that he's making sure you're not watching gay porn? I mean, shut the fuck up. That's the thing. I don't mind if you're quietly gay. You know what I mean? As long as you're not creating policy that's detrimental to gay people.

Like Lindsay fucking Graham. Yeah, that's your business. And same thing for trans. If you like trans, you're in the military, Then, you know, do it. Yeah. But don't be talking shit about trans women or trans men when you're, you know, consuming the corn. We can't say porn because we'll get kicked off the algorithm.

Oh, really? Oh, my God, if you say porn on some things, they kick you off, like TikTok or whatever. Really? You've got to say corn. Jennifer Welch. If you were offered a cabinet position in the next administration, what would you prefer. Oh, God. That's a great question.

Secretary of Gays? No, I'm kidding. I really would love that. I would want to be the... It would be fashion and design. You'd have to... I would do that as extra credit. I would do that as extra credit, but I would want... I'm not a lawyer, but I would want to prosecute people, but I don't have the law degree

to do that. I think I would want to be the White House Chief of Staff to make sure like that person stayed focused all the time

like don't listen to that shit oh a press secretary I would love that I would love that I would love to just stand up there and just be a total bitch I would love for like Fox News

to add well what about blah blah blah and I'd be like tough tities you didn't ask those questions when Donald Trump is president sit down next question I mean I would humiliate them I would love I would like that docy what's his name Steve doozy Steve douche bag I would love to be like pipe down and quit acting like you're a journalist you didn't bring this heat for Trump sit this one out who would you like to say she'd like to be the press secretary someone said who is the person that you would like to interview most that you have not interviewed. Oh my God. Okay, so this is

it's not a politician, but my favorite television show of all time is curb your enthusiasm. Oh my God. Have you seen the Maga Hat one? I've seen every episode multiple times, the Maga Hat episode, the Palestinian chicken episode. Long balls. The one where he dates the guy,

he dates the girl and her little son, Greg is gay and he buys Greg a sewing machine. And then Greg ends up making Susie, who is Larry's Uber Jewish friend accidentally makes her a Nazi pillowcase. You know, every, every plot is just so crazy. But so I've thought, I want to interview Larry David. And then recently I've been like, what if I meet him?

And he's a dick. You know, and I don't know if I could handle that. Because curb your enthusiasm is such an important show to me. Like, I love it so much. If I just am in a bad mood, I can just put on one of the shows and it cracks me up. It's so brilliant. But that's who I've always wanted to interview, but I'm afraid he would be, I would be great if he was cranky, because I would expect for him to be cranky. But what if he was just like, we sit down doing the interview and like before and after he wasn't like bullshitting like we did backstage? It would hurt my feelings. I think from people I know who know him, I think he's a pretty good guy. I don't think you would be disappointed. Thank you, Don. Yeah, I don't think you'd be disappointed. I don't think he hates

doing interviews, but that's the guy. That's who I want to interview. Have you ever met Bill Maher? No. And here's, let me tell you about Bill Maher. Growing up, or not growing up, but like, in my 20s, as an atheist, as a liberal, I loved his show. I loved it. And these last, like, three or four years, it's unwatchable. I cannot fucking stand him. He has been so red-pilled. It's crazy. But his movie, Religious, I remember my mother and I went to see Religious, the documentary. and we saw it in Oklahoma. And my mother was like, oh, my God, Jennifer, I can't believe they're making films like this. I always thought I just had to believe all of this by myself that all of these religions sounded crazy. And after the film was over,

people in Oklahoma City stood up and they were clapping. And then Bill Maher came to Oklahoma City a couple of times, and this was like during the Bush administration. And we all went to see him, and God, I mean, now when I see him, even on my, I followed him, when I see him on my algorithm, I'm like, ugh, I can't fucking stand him anymore. Well, someone, oops. I need the microphone.

Too much martini. When can we expect to see you on Bill Maher? Would you go on? Someone else asked on another card, would you ever go on? Bill Maher? Yeah. You know, I've thought about that. I probably would do it because I think I would like to be confrontational

with him about how he's like he used to be such a good voice for people that were secular and making the case that you can be secular and give a shit about progressive causes and now he's just I don't even know what's

happened to him but I think he got red pilled yeah what do he say he's a bitch he's a bitch he's actually pretty on the show if you challenge him he he will back down he's pretty dasso you just did it recently, didn't you? I did it. Oh, God, I think maybe six months ago. Yeah, I watched you.

Yeah. I took, I temporary, temporarily, temporarily, I'm sober, temporarily lifted the ban on watching him to watch you on him. Yeah, thank you. When I go on, I'm like, ugh, but I did, the best time I had with him was not on his show on HBO, but on his podcast. Where he says there and get stoned. He was so stoned and he's drunk and I got a contact high and he asked me, I might have been bide. I might have inhaled when I was on the show. But he said something about you say that MAGA is racist and I said, yeah, there's a large part of MAGA that's racist. And he said, that's insulting. And I said, the truth is often insulting. And we had a, and there's no lie in that. I mean, do you know any, you know, look, all the

racists voted for Trump, right? Of course the racist. I mean, come on. I mean, it's just those questions like, when I was on Pierce Morgan, he's like, why would you call him a fascism? I'm like, well, because they are peers. I mean, it's just, are a MAGA racist, of course the racist.

I mean, it's just, those are stupid questions. You know my Pierce Morgan thing. Oh, I know you hate him. I don't hate him, but he's clickbait. He's like walking clickbait. Yeah. Yeah. And he does really believe in anything except for the clicks. Yeah.

So it annoys me. It annoys me. So, Jen, what is, I wonder, like, you, your podcast should be called pivot. I know, I know, but you have made, you've made a major pivot in your life. You've moved, you've changed, you haven't changed, but you change where you live. Yeah. You, I think your attitude about life changed, even since I met you that first day when I came to ASL studio. Oh, yeah.

You have just blossomed into this amazing person and voice. Do you feel that? Do you... There's got to be something that you feel. I do. I do feel like a sense of liberation that at 50, I changed my career. I moved. And you can do that.

I think that there's a message to women subconsciously and subluminally that it's after your kids go off to college, then you're defined as an empty nester. Men can start a new business at 50. Nobody thinks anything of it. It's like, oh, well, look at Bill. He sure is, you know, rainmaker. What an entrepreneur he is. But with women, I think it's really empowering.

Like, when your kids are gone, I mean, it's total freedom that you haven't felt in, you know, 20 plus years. And I'm still young enough, still play tennis. So I want to beat the lesbians at pickleball, but never quite. You know who's good at pickleball? Who? Jonathan Van Ness. Oh, really?

Yeah. He is good at pickleball. He is really a good little athlete. Tim and I aren't so great. Tim and I are not so great at pickleball. Josh is really good. Is he really? We'll play pickleball.

Really good, yeah. But it's been really liberating, and it's so fun. every time I'm in New York and I like cross the street and I'll look up and I'll see the Empire State building. I'm just like, it's really awesome. And then I love Boston, you guys. I love it. It's, it was always so important to me as a blue dot that lived in a red state knowing that a place like Boston or a place like New York existed where people were so normal. But competitive. But, compassionate and smart and had so much pride in advocating for other people. And it was just important to know that like, oh my God, these places exist. And when Josh and I landed today and I was like,

let's go walk around. I love Boston so much. It's so charming. The streets are so clean here. Have you noticed that? It is clean and I feel smarter when I come here. I do too. I feel like the air. I feel like the air up here makes me a little smarter. Someone says, I adore you. Thank you for making first stop opening night in my town, Boston. So, right? And then the question that I asked, the last two questions lead up to this. Senator Chris Murphy was recently on your show and said that in 2028, in the primary,

any primary candidate will have to go through your podcast. Just three-ish years into this. how does this feel? Do you feel pressure? No. I am equal to the task. I am ready for everyone to come to my studio in New York and sit down and I don't like it when the politician's office starts emailing. What questions are you going to ask? I'm like, no. No. Tell them to come. They do that to you? Yes. I tell them now. You need to come and sit down and answer the questions. You know, this was our journalistic thing. We could give them topics that they want to talk that we're going to talk about.

We'll talk about such and such. And then the easiest thing to say is news of the day because there's so much news every single day. That's a great little pro tip. Yeah. News of a day. But I agree with Chris Murphy. I really do. I think they're going to have to go through Jennifer Welk.

Oh, thank you. The book is called Not Today Fascist, The Lies that got us here and the truths that will reunite us. and the podcast is I've had it, and the lady is Jennifer Welch, and we love her. Thank you, thank you. Announcement, Don Lemon and I, and the next, probably not this Friday, but the next, we are doing a Friday podcast. Some of you probably already know. It's called The Weekend Read, a Welch's Lemonade production.

Welch's Lemonade, get it. And it is the weekly news where we just unravel and giggle, and it's serious and funny, and it's on our YouTube channels. So make sure you follow both of us. And Don, thank you so much. Oh, thank you, Jen. I love you. I love you.

I love you. In communities across Canada, hourly Amazon employees earn an average of over $26 an hour. Employees also have the opportunity to grow their skills and their paycheck by enrolling in free skills training programs for in-demand fields, like software development and information technology. Learn more. at aboutamazon.ca.