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The Tara Palmeri Show
Trump’s Grotesque Reaction to Rob Reiner’s Murder Sparks Outrage with Jennifer Welch
00:53:10
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- [00:00]
Jennifer Welch
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.
- [00:04]
Tara Palmeri
You chose to hit play on this podcast today.
- [00:07]
Jennifer Welch
Smart Choice make another smart choice with Auto Quote Explorer to compare rates from multiple car insurance companies all at once. Try it@progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Not available in all states or situations. Prices vary based on how you buy foreign.
- [00:31]
Tara Palmeri
Welcome to the Tara Palmeri Show. Jennifer Welch is not your typical Bravo alum. She's an Oklahoma native from the Bible Belt who somehow became one of the most fearless Democratic truth tellers in the podcast ecosystem. She's a rare progressive, willing to punch in every direction, including her own. You've seen her go after Rahm Emanuel, Elon Musk, and what she calls the entire Kirk industrial complex. My next guest will brings a kind of prairie fire energy to politics. Unscripted, unsentimental, and allergic to bullshit. She's openly critical of soft messaging, lazy candidates, and the, quote, good MSNBC liberal mindset she argues helped Democrats lose to Donald Trump twice. Elon Musk once called her an evil ghoul. Her producer swears no guest wants to get on her bad side. And operatives hate her for one simple reason. She has an instinct they can't control. She can smell sincerity, or lack of it from across the room. And when she calls people out, her clips don't just go viral on the left, they go viral on the right, too. Today we're getting into the political problem children, Trump's grotesque post about the film producer Rob Reiner and his death, the very public implosion between Candace Owens and Erica Kirk, and the war on women increasingly led by Republican women themselves. And for balance, what's rotting inside the Democratic Party, who, if anyone, can save it and why some of its biggest stars still don't understand how power actually works in social media. This is Jennifer Welsh, host of IHIP News. A Mochi moment from Sadie, who writes, I'm not crying, you're crying.
- [02:18]
Jennifer Welch
This is what I said during my first appointment with my physician at Mochi because I didn't have to convince him I needed a GLP one. He understood and I felt supported, not judged. I came for the weight loss and stayed for the empathy.
- [02:31]
Tara Palmeri
Thanks, Sadie. I'm Mayra Amit, founder of Mochi Health.
- [02:35]
Jennifer Welch
To find your mochi moment, visit joinmochi.com Sadie is a Mochi member, compensated for her story.
- [02:42]
Tara Palmeri
Jennifer, thank you so much for coming on the show. Such a treat. Huge fan of yours.
- [02:48]
Jennifer Welch
Thank you for having me. I'm very. I'm a huge fan of yours.
- [02:51]
Tara Palmeri
New York City.
- [02:54]
Jennifer Welch
Thank you it's been a long time coming. I had to wait for my youngest son to graduate from high school, and he's at usc. And so I thought, you know what? I'm gonna have a midlife gap year. I'm gonna go live in a big multicultural city, and I'm loving it.
- [03:09]
Tara Palmeri
Yeah, because you're from the, the heartland, as they say.
- [03:14]
Jennifer Welch
Yeah, yeah. Very religious. Very red. Oklahoma.
- [03:18]
Tara Palmeri
Well, it's funny, I had a bit of like a reverse situation where, you know, I grew up. I was born in New York, grew up in New Jersey, then my family moved to the heartland and now they're evangelicals. So, you know, anything can happen. You can really go either way.
- [03:36]
Jennifer Welch
Were they late in life? Converts to evangelicals.
- [03:39]
Tara Palmeri
Oh, it just happened. They basically just moved and they were like, okay, yeah, now we're evangelicals. It's like, okay. They got baptized. Born again. I had to go to Catholic school my whole life. I could have gotten out of that.
- [03:50]
Jennifer Welch
What? Oh, that's crazy.
- [03:52]
Tara Palmeri
Yeah. So still, I, I, I think partially they wanted a community. And I think when you live in that area of the country, it's just like, you know, that's, that's what you, that's what you do. So it's, they seem happy, so.
- [04:07]
Jennifer Welch
Well, good.
- [04:08]
Tara Palmeri
As long as they're happy. Although it is interesting. Like, I feel like it's a little, they're a little bit more pious with me.
- [04:18]
Jennifer Welch
Well, that, that sect of Christianity is very overt. It's very cultural. It's, it's. I was just telling Pumps, the co host of my podcast. I've been in New York since October, and it's the first time I've gone this long in my life and I'm nobody. I've never heard church brought up. I've never heard reference, religious references. And in Oklahoma, it's just ubiquitous. It is just so cooked into the culture. And so I can understand if they move to the Bible Bell in order to have, like, a social life, you. That would be the easiest route.
- [04:54]
Tara Palmeri
Totally. And I, they, they did the dunk. They did the Born Again. They're, they, they found Jesus again.
- [04:59]
Jennifer Welch
Do a hand raise.
- [05:01]
Tara Palmeri
Yeah.
- [05:02]
Jennifer Welch
With the worship. Oh, wow.
- [05:04]
Tara Palmeri
Right.
- [05:04]
Jennifer Welch
Yes.
- [05:05]
Tara Palmeri
And then they, like, cry if I don't go to church with them. But I'm like, last time I checked, I had to go to Catholic school for many years, so I'm actually Catholic.
- [05:14]
Jennifer Welch
I always like the Catholics best. I wasn't raised with religion. And so growing up in Oklahoma City, the Catholics were cooler because they weren't, they didn't try to convert you. The evangelicals, it's a real compulsion that they talk to you constantly about hell and punishment and your soul. It's a non stop. And the Catholics are like, if you want to be a Catholic, you have to study. It's hard.
- [05:38]
Tara Palmeri
Like, yeah, there's a certain. Now it's just like, well, you have to join us in this mission. And it's interesting.
- [05:49]
Jennifer Welch
Very.
- [05:51]
Tara Palmeri
I'm a full adult now, so can't really change my mind that easily. Give me this, give me the a good, you know, give me a good pitch.
- [06:00]
Jennifer Welch
Yeah.
- [06:02]
Tara Palmeri
But today is actually a really sad day. Rob Reiner and his wife, tortured, killed by their own son. I mean, just, it's so sad. And our president has turned this into political killing. He's making it about himself, saying that, that they had trumped arrangement syndrome. I'm going to read this for anyone who hasn't already read this tweet. I mean, it is just so horrific. Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed. What? Passed away together with his wife Michelle, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding and incurable affliction. Inflection with, excuse me, affliction with a mind crippling disease known as Trump Derangement syndrome, sometimes referred to as tds. He has, he was known to have driven people crazy by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump and his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness. And with the golden age of America upon us, perhaps like never before. What I mean is he, is he trying to suggest that he had it coming?
- [07:25]
Jennifer Welch
I mean, you know, I think he is so. He's such a toddler and this narcissism that he has is just so big and if anybody scratches, the surface underneath is just like mounds and mounds and mounds of insecurity. And Rob Reiner, respected, beloved, very factually and very kindly would always very, in a civilized way, scratch the facade of this toxic masculinity and dig right into the psyche of this man and people who do that to him. He gets a bee in his bonnet and it is just all game on. But you know, Trump never has empathy towards people that die. You know, he famously spoke about the allied forces, the anti fascist fighters in World War II as suckers and losers At a cemetery after Charlie Kirk died, we all remember he was on the getting off Marine One and somebody said, so Charlie Kirk was like a son to you. How are you holding up he goes. Yeah, yeah. Did you see? Here's where they're going to bulldoze the east wing and build my ballroom. And so this is.
- [08:33]
Tara Palmeri
I saw that. I was like, wow, he's not even flinching.
- [08:37]
Jennifer Welch
No, this is. Not only is he dead, but then it's just a childlike nanny, nanny, boo, boo. And then to make it about him.
- [08:44]
Tara Palmeri
I think a kid would have more compassion than this, 100%.
- [08:48]
Jennifer Welch
You're exactly right. And at the core of this whole thing is addiction. And my husband is in recovery. And addiction is something that is just so when you go through it and you love somebody who is suffering from addiction, it is the most painful thing. There were many times, Tara, when I was trying to get my husband sober, and it's. You're literally banging your head against a wall talking to an insane person. And there. There are many times where you think maybe if. If it just. If he just overdosed at some point, it would be easier because it would. It would end. It wouldn't keep moving. It wouldn't keep moving. And it was such a horrible thought that I had when I was in it, and that was morbid thought that I had. And I finally had the courage to talk to my therapist about it. And he said, you know, this is really common. And so anybody who's in the throes of loving somebody who's an addict and would do anything to get them sober, like Rob Reiner and his wife with his son, I just have so much empathy towards. And then a lot of addicts have compounding, dual diagnosis, some sort of depression or maybe some sort of personality disorder. And then you don't know what type of. Of drug his child was using. Like, if you get into meth and things like this, aggression is a symptom of that. And they're just larger conversations that we can have about all of these tragedies. Like this with Rob Reiner would be the message of addiction, which is not maga, which is not leftist. It's not independent. It's universal. Charlie Kirk getting shot is about gun violence. But we never have a conversation, an honest conversation, about what these causes of deaths are. It's always politicized immediately, and that never helps us to progress. It's fascinating to see how much projection people put into, like, the shooting in Australia, people, before we knew anything about the hero, people start projecting, is he Jewish, is he Muslim? And they want these narratives to fit their preconceived notions and biases. And so the. The story about Rob Reiner is a story about addiction. And it's just so incred. Incredibly horrible and sad.
- [11:12]
Tara Palmeri
It's incredibly painful. I mean, and they were working together. I mean, in 2015, he achieved sobriety while collaborating on a semi autobio biographical film called Being Charlie. I mean, he was obviously close to his family. They were, you know, deeply involved in trying to help him get back up on his feet. And it's, it's a terrible monster that, that so many families have to deal with. Every family, including my own, we lost a family member to an overdose. And yeah, it's just, it's, it's horrendous.
- [11:51]
Jennifer Welch
It's horrible. When I would go to like, support groups, I was. So as a wife, you're mad. Your default setting is like anger and it feels personal now. I don't feel that way anymore. But the women in my support group that were mothers who had son or a daughter who was an addict, their pain was just, it was a, it was, it was more pure than mine was. Mine was somewhat. I kind of experienced some toxic pain. I've worked through all of this and I want anybody struggling with addiction or loving an addict to know I'm so grateful for recovery and the work that my husband did to get in recovery. But it is really painful, messy, difficult things. And it surprises me zero that Rob Reiner and his son, after he gets recovery, that you want to help others experience the joy of recovery and the joy of therapy and returning to some normal, normalcy.
- [12:46]
Tara Palmeri
Yeah, it's, it's terrible. And somehow it is on truth Social. And even President Trump's allies like Piers Morgan tweeted, this is a dreadful thing to say about a man who just got murdered by his troubled son. Delete it. Mr. President, I know Marjorie Taylor Greene has lately become, you know, more critical. She also said to him, this is about addiction. This has nothing to do with you. Don Bacon, who is a member of the House Freedom Caucus, very conservative, said, it is not presidential. The couple were stabbed to death. Most Americans want more and better from our president. I mean, that, you know, that's saying something. And Trump's eldest brother, Fred, Fred Jr. Died at 42. And, you know, it's just, you know, what does he learn from his brother's death? You know, it's just, it really, it's shocking. And there are more Republicans. I can keep going. I mean, Mike Lawler said the statement is wrong. Massey, inappropriate and disrespectful. George Santos no longer there. But like, you know, they're not.
- [13:56]
Jennifer Welch
This is, this is the indefensible it's completely indefensible. And what we're seeing, that we start, we started seeing the last few months are fissures in the MAGA movement. Trump is a mentally unstable person. We've known that for a long time. Our politics, both Democratic politics and Republican politics, have favored corporations so much that it's caused a vacuum to where people want to just vote against the status quo, vote for a celebrity, all the different reasons. And now we're seeing fissures in the MAGA movement. It was this really cohesive. It seemed like there was, it was never going to crack. And you're seeing fissures all over the MAGA movement. He's a lame duck. I think my opinion just from watching, if you watch a press conference of his from start to finish and not the clip down sand wash version, it's very clear that he's suffering from some sort of mental collapse. And if you watch something from him like back in 2016, it's really a marked difference. And so he's a lame duck. It clearly has massive health issues. He's meaner than a rattlesnake. And it's difficult to have empathy for somebody when we have all of these financial problems. Working class people are really getting hit hard. The one thing he promised he would do is fix the economy. People falsely believe that because they have given him the benefit of being a good businessman simply because he's wealthy. And quite the contrary is true. He's a terrible businessman. And he, the, the overt spending and the just how flagrant he and the oligarchs are right now. It's a real kind of eat the rich moment. And so his, that he, that he does all the time, it's not landing anymore. He's no longer sticking the landing. You're seeing fissures. The cruelty seems to be more pronounced lately.
- [15:56]
Tara Palmeri
Yeah, he lost his mojo. I mean, they're not following him. And there's nothing like an anvil of a bad economy that will sink your presidency. And maybe I'm just being cynical, but I think if he was more popular, you might hear fewer tweets. But they see the writing on the wall, they're going to lose the midterms, and they're, they're annoyed and it's. I wonder if he could have gotten away with this a few months earlier. But I don't know.
- [16:22]
Jennifer Welch
It's just, he's gotten away with so much stuff. I mean, he really has. I think you're right. Maybe eight months ago it would have been o. Just trump Being Trump, you know, they've all provided so much cover. They've all seen wash for him. This is the grab him by the guy. All right, this, this is a guy who really has shown us from day one who he is. Other people, their visors come off at different times based on how life impacts them, sadly. And seeing how obsessed he is, like he's, I say he's in his Marie Antoinette era, you know, the, the ballroom, he's obsessed with architect fire at him because he wants ballroom to be so big. It's just all this ridiculous stuff that he's doing in stark contrast to. I think I read that in Oklahoma, my home state, Tara, insurance premiums are going to be going up to something like 10 or $12,000. And this, this, it's a poor state. And so these are real difficult issues. And he's talking about, you know, basically every aspect of our country is up for sale right now. You want planes, we'll sell them to you. You want our scientific innovations, you' by it. You know, it's all enriching him and his friends and I feel like he's. The gig is up now. The big thing that really pisses me off is, you know, like Mike Johnson and these people that claim to be so religious and so God centered. And he won't say a word about this. He will not show any courage and show any daylight between this horrific statement that the President has made. He won't. He'll just sit there and say, oh, I haven't heard about it, I don't know anything about it.
- [18:06]
Tara Palmeri
And that was always the excuse. But yeah, that's why Trump is trampling all over you and that's why you're not gonna be speaker for very long. Leadership like that is just, you're just a noodle. I mean, you're just, I agree with you on that, that he's got no backbone and people don't respect that. Ultimately, yeah. Yeah.
- [18:27]
Jennifer Welch
Can you imagine getting that much power that you're the speaker of the House and then you just abdicate it to him, to Trump, that's the guy you give it up for. It's just when I, when I stop and think about it, we can all get in the whirlwind of the news and it's, you know, they're flooding the zone, they're doing all this crazy all the time. And then when I think about, you're the speaker of the House, I mean, Nancy Pelosi had that gavel and she used it. I mean, I didn't agree with everything she did, but she used it. She wielded her power. And this guy. It's just unbelievable to me, the lack of courage from so many politicians, both most of them Republican, but some of the Democrats too, really pissed me off.
- [19:09]
Tara Palmeri
Yeah, well, we can talk about all that and more. I do want to move over to the real Housewives of D.C. or just sort of like the politics and the rivalries going on right now. Erica Kirk, wife of Charlie Kirk, is having a private meeting with Candace Owens, formerly a part of the Turning Point Network, which is what Charlie Kirk built. She was. She started with Ben Shapiro. She's got her own huge podcast, millions and millions of followers where she floats conspiracy theories. And the two of them have been at it for a long time. The latest is Candace says that Charlie was in love with another woman and that she's got text messages to prove it. She also claimed that the French Legion killed Charlie because he is anti Semitic. I can't remember exactly what it was or. Yeah, or anti Israel. It's all of the cockamamie stuff coming out of her mouth. I mean, it's crazy. But I also have like really smart friends who reach out to me and they're like, you should listen to Candace. And I think, what? So she's breaking through and she's a smart person. I mean, she went to Harvard, she's persuasive. But damn.
- [20:18]
Jennifer Welch
Here's, here's the thing about a lot of these right wingers. That's really dangerous. So you have like the way DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse is the one stop shop for all your footwear needs with sneakers, boots and everything in between for every style, mood and occasion. You'll definitely find shoes that get you at prices that get your budget. DSW has what you need, but more importantly, they have what you didn't even know you wanted. You never know what you'll find at dsw. Find the shoes that get you at prices that get your budget. At DSW stores or dsw.com we receive news now is you have your device and you're on Instagram or TikTok or something and you see cat and then you see a hot person and then you see Candace Owens say something and it's a 30 second clip. And sometimes assholes have moments of clarity. And so you'll see Nick Fuentes say something and you're like, oh, I thought he was a Nazi. But it's something that is. It makes sense and it's cohesive. Or so Tucker Carlson. Or you'll see Candace Owens and Then you scroll again and then you see a vacation or a hotel. And so it's these little glimpses that you see. And that's what's so dangerous about it. The Candace Owens, like I was just dying laughing when you were talking about, I mean, she's literally jumped from conspiracy theory to conspiracy theory. You know, she's the one who has this big conspiracy that Bridget Macron is really a man and she's been harassing that woman forever. And so sometimes all of her conspiracy theories come together. But I think that what, what we have is that also with Trump, how a lot of things are that aren't landing anymore. I think the right wing media has had like a 10 year jump on the left wing media because we all stuck with msnbc, cnn, you know, the, the left did. And I think they're starting to unravel as well. Like they're at the tail stage of the psychosis right now. And, and I think they're all starting to spin out. It's wildly entertaining, but people like Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes are really dangerous because there's, they already see the curtains on Trump and so they're, everybody's jockeying to get this cult pulled in. And conspiracy theories are very entertaining, but they throw out enough sane stuff here and there. Like I always go back to Marjorie Taylor Greene and her rebrand right now because some of the stuff that she says will really hit hard in like flyover states when she'll say things like, oh, Israel has health care and they don't have student loan debt and we send billions of dollars and they kill Christian babies in Palestine. Well, I know the history of Marjorie Taylor Greene. I know that she cherry picks which human rights she cares for and she doesn't connect them all together. But for the average voter, that again, they've, it's a cat and then maybe a person saying something and that's how.
- [23:21]
Tara Palmeri
They can drive, you know, yeah, voters, like, not everyone's an activist, not everyone's watching, Listen.
- [23:27]
Jennifer Welch
And then they'll be like, oh, she's not so crazy anymore. And we've already decided as a society that if somebody has a bunch of crazy in their background, that's fine, they can be president. We elected Trump twice. It's not disqualifying anymore to have a crazy past.
- [23:42]
Tara Palmeri
Yeah. Well, so my producer Eric, who actually listens to Candace, says that she speaks in horoscopes. The commons are so vague that they eventually come true. Like he said that there, that she said that there will be like a terrorist attack in the second week of December, which he said is always, he said there's always more likely to be a terrorist attack around that time because people congregate. But like that's the kind of stuff that she'll do and that's how she hooks people in. I don't personally listen to her, so I can't make those comments. That's why I'm attributing to Eric.
- [24:16]
Jennifer Welch
I don't listen to her either. I see the clips where like, like left wing people will listen to her and it's like I'll, I'll do a drive by of Candace. Yeah, I think the whole thing about like Eric Kirk with Candace Owens right now is, is wild. Like I watched a lot of the clips from Erica Kirk's interview with Barry Weiss and I just think that Erica Kirk is experiencing like religious psychosis. It's something, is not, something's not okay with her. It's. It's this and I think she's in like a religious psychosis state. Candace Owens is either like also experiencing some form of psychosis or it's just all a show and she just goes with it for the clips. I don't know if she believes it or not, but it's a really interesting their meetup this morning and before I logged on with you, I went on to Candace's Twitter which I don't follow her but I wanted to see if she had updated anything because they had agreed to have like a freeze and she hadn't updated her Twitter page. So I don't know what, what's going to happen there.
- [25:24]
Tara Palmeri
I'm going to ask Eric to pull that up but in the meantime he says that was a real prediction that on November 27, 2025 she said they have been signaling that a 911 style attack is coming the second week of December. Save this tweet. It will age well. 823,000 people view that. That's more people than that watch a regular CNN show. Way more. Probably double. Yeah, yeah. And then think of all the pickup from that. I do think there are a lot of people having psychosis right now. I think it's like post Covid ptsd. I think that's where you're seeing a lot of the radicalization. I think you see this probably in a lot of people who have shows and podcasts that they are a little bit nutty and it's all playing out. I do think Erica is probably under a lot of stress. I mean having lost someone is obviously would change your brain. You don't know what's going on. Listen, I'm not a doctor. I'm not going to diagnose people. But grief is real. It's real. We've all been through it. And I don't know if I would want to be doing TV appearances while I was grieving. But she seems to be everywhere. She's like a pseudo Fox News anchor at this point. I feel like she'll use that to either continue to lead Turning Point and then run for office. I don't know. She, she does seem like she's angling for something bigger. I can't imagine she's just doing all this TV to grieve publicly. It's not like she's calling for gun reform.
- [26:52]
Jennifer Welch
She hasn't mentioned that one time. And I think it's really interesting component to where we are right now. If you think about this autocratic takeover that they're trying to do at the top. If it's an umbrella, a part of the weapons that autocrats or dict is they launch women to weaponize their gender to get other women to they gender wash. And so you have these women full time employees at Fox News, Erica Kirk and others saying you need to get married, you need to stay at home. Erica Kirk recently did a New York Times, she was on stage with some reporter from the New York Times and she said, I just want women in New York to realize you need to marry younger. Meanwhile, she's working full time. She has a full time job. We did an episode on our other podcast broadcast I hip News where the which I think you were just on with pumps, where the, the female anchors on Fox were talking about women not wanting to get married. And what's wrong, what's wrong with all these women? They need to, they need to get married. They need to stay at home and have kids. And I'm like, you're working full time right now. But this isn't, this is on purpose. This is an intentional part of the overall propaganda of an autocrat where they the through line is misogyny. They start beating down women immediately and they launch women to weaponize their gender against other women. And Erica Kirk is a soldier in this right now.
- [28:25]
Tara Palmeri
It's interesting because that is sort of, I mean historically that is what fascists have done. I mean they have tried to reduce women back into very traditional roles in the home and focusing on population growth. Right. So that they can get rid of immigrants the others. But you know, I do think it's interesting what you're saying because Sean Duffy has said that wives should stay at home, women should focus on getting married. They should care about a sunset. Holding hands and having a sunset and spending time with your kids, it's more important than anything else. And you're like Sean Duffy, your transportation secretary, you're probably barely holding your wife's hand, who works at Fox, by the way, right? Your children been shuttling around in D.C. you know, Pete Hegseth, another person who's made known that he's very traditional, conservative, his wife was a executive producer, are at Fox News. So basically it's like you can be a stay at home or work at.
- [29:15]
Jennifer Welch
Fox, but also he's on his third wife, Pete. He says, yeah, yeah, yeah. And he has like eight kids, three baby mamas. And so these are the people that are on the, you know, high ground telling us about traditional families. And I just, what they're trying to do, it's always been a red flag for me when people say traditional family. That's a red flag is what they're trying to do is other eyes, families that aren't traditional. It meaning like that a single mother or two lesbians or two gay men and these dorks, these total unqualified dorks that surround the president are in no position to tell us what a family is and what a family isn't. Like that. That is the, the cruelest thing that you can do is to act like your family's better. And it's just, it's such bullshit. Look at Trump. Look at Trump's family. Look at, I mean, look at dumb and dumber his sons. All they've done is enrich themselves.
- [30:11]
Tara Palmeri
I mean, he's the one who says that women, he's also said that women should have traditional roles. And here is his wife, a Yale educated lawyer. They met in Yale. Erica Kirk herself met Charlie when she was 30 and he was in his 20s. And Charlie, his, his friend at the time, wanted me to interview him for his book, his latest book. I did end up interviewing him, but to kind of like provoke me. Ahead of the interview, he sent a bunch of passages that said that women over 30 were expired, like basically on the back of the shelf and that their marriage, their marriage opportunities greatly decline, whereas men peak at 35. But women at age are pretty much like, you know, expired. And I just thought it was so, like, it's so hypocritical because his wife was older than him, 30, and had a jewelry company, which is why she's covered in bling all the time whenever you see her. And I'm like, why does she have like a grill on her hands? This is like there's, it's so hypocritical. They, those women that work in politics, they are so, that have met these political men, they're, they met climbing to the top right. They are ambitious. They probably could see themselves in the roles that their husbands are in and maybe even see that as a pathway. Just like Hillary Clinton, who's been villainized for seeing the same thing.
- [31:24]
Jennifer Welch
Well, let's think about it like this. All of these women at Fox and Erica Kirk, Candace Owens, whomever else, they are riding the coattails of women suffragettes and women who really fought a big fight for gender equality. I was born in 1974. That's the same year women could get a credit card in their own name. And so the, the unraveling of, and the erosion that they want to participate in, in women's rights, that they're, they, they would have never been in this position right now without progressive women fighting the fight before them. And so they want to ride these coattails up to the top at what a short sighted journey to then all of a sudden be with a group of people that at some point the knives are going to be. And this is what amazes me about a lot of the people in the MAGA regime. Scott Besant, does he think he's a magic homo? Does he think at some point the homophobes. There's been 600 pieces of legislation anti LGBTQ plus legislation. 600 pieces this year. Does he think at some point these white Christian nationalists at the Heritage Heritage foundation are going to go, oh, Scott, you're the magic homo. Cash Patel, does he think at some point that Stephen Miller, the white nationalist is going to go, oh, it's fine that you're Indian?
- [32:46]
Tara Palmeri
No, I mean, Stephen Miller's Jewish. That's another thing. There's so much hypocrisy too.
- [32:50]
Jennifer Welch
Exactly.
- [32:51]
Tara Palmeri
Not even really white, I mean, has, I mean, at least partially white, if you consider Hispanic. It's just all of it, none of it makes sense. They, I think there is, there is something really weird about it. And they think that as being the exceptions, that they're the only ones and everyone else who doesn't lead their path to being the exception is, you know, is wrong. So. But I do want to move on from the GOP because we've done a lot of GOP trashing. We gotta be fair and talk about the Democrats. They just had a big meeting, the DNC meeting a few days ago in California. Former Vice President Kamala Harris spoke and you know, they kicked off the meeting basically with the form with the DNC chairman Ken Martin joking that, that her husband Doug Emhoff could be the first gentleman, you know, a step up. And she had a totally different message when she came out and spoke to the crowd. She basically has now turned on the party, kind of trashing subtly her predecessor saying both parties have failed to hold the public's trust. Government is viewed as fundamentally unable to meet the moment. This is someone who sort of had to defend the status quo in the last election. I wonder, you know, is this the strategy going forward? Gloves are off. Do you think that we need more Kamala Harris or is a loser have the stench of loss on them and not someone that the, the party should move forward with?
- [34:19]
Jennifer Welch
I think maybe both things can be true here. I think her message that the Democrats need to go out and have a 50 state strategy, and I don't know if she said that or not, but they need to go take ownership for Biden's failure with the border. They need to take ownership with the blank check that Biden gave Netanyahu. They need to take ownership with being beholden to corporations and being beholden to the same corporations right now that have so much that had such a vested interest in Trump being winning. And so I think there needs to be some fair Democrat on Democrat bashing. I think that we need to do that because centrists, democrats have lost two major races in 16 and 24 to a moron. And so we need to really look as a party of what does centrist policies do and how did they leave a void that allowed for fascism to take hold? At the same time, I don't know that Kamala's it, but I'm going to say this. I am going to keep my, my mind wide open and I'm very interested in a lot of these primary races that are going to happen in like Texas, New York 10, you're going to have Brad Lander against Dan Goldman. I think that's going to be a really fascinating primary. I think the primary of James Talarico vs. Jasmine Crockett in Texas is going to be really interesting to see what, what penetrates, what breaks through. But if you look at who was won recently, and I'll just point out Zoran Mamdani, he was laser focused on affordability. He had billionaires colluding, freaking out, I mean, throwing feces against the wall, outspending each other, how much, you know, we have to prevent this guy. And he took him on. And he won in New York City as a democratic socialist. And so I think that was a big wake up call for Democrats. I did not know, I'm hearing this for the first time that Kennedy Martin had Kamala as the first one that came out. So this is the first time I've heard that. So that's really interesting to me because you've got Gavin Newsom, who, I mean, he clearly wants to be president really, really badly. So I'm really interested to watch them all go at it. I, I, I was excited for Kamala. I voted for Kamala. When Kamala started trotting around with Liz Cheney during the last election, it kind of pissed me off a little bit because I just thought, you're going for the wrong voters. So I, I've been so frustrate. Not all of them, but a lot of the establishment Democrats have been like, don't even get me started on chuckles Chuck Schumer. I mean, I just could pull my hair out by the root. He makes me so insane.
- [37:09]
Tara Palmeri
Okay, well, I think we'll take a moment for our sponsors and come back to the show with a few surprising polls. If you're anything like me, then you hate running around from store to store to store for holiday gifting. But you still want to get people that you love something beautiful, something timeless, something that they will wear for years. And that's why this year, I'm going going to quince. From Mongolian cashmere sweaters that only cost $50 to Italian wool coats, everything is premium quality at a price that actually makes sense. I personally wear a lot of their silk tops on this show because they're so reasonably priced. And they're made with premium materials from ethical, trusted factories priced so far below luxury brands. I don't know how they do it. Their craftsmanship is shown in every single detail. The stitching, the fit, the drape, it's elevated. It's timeless. It's, it's clothing you'll wear forever. So if you want to find gifts that you'll want to keep for yourself, Then head to quince.comtara for free shipping on your order and 365 days of returns. They're now available in Canada, too. That's Quince Q U I n c e.com Tara T A R A to get free shipping and 365 days of returns. Quince.com/tara to show who's at the top of the pack. And we're back. So some of the polls show that either Newsom, Gavin Newsom is The top contender for 2028. But Morning Consult consistently shows Kamala Harris. What do you think? Do you think this is going to be being a. A Newsome vs. Harris primary, or do you think that people just don't know the others yet? They don't know JB Pritzker, they don't know Wes Moore well enough. And they just have the highest name I id.
- [38:56]
Jennifer Welch
I think they probably have the highest name id. I think that, I mean, we're a long ways away. I know that like far leftists don't want either Kamala or Nome, but I do think that they have time. And I think that as voting, as voters, if somebody has changed and evolved on their opinion, like you have to be kind of a nut to run for president, let's face it. And if, if you see somebody evolve, like if Kamala's coming out and being critical of her past positions, that's what we want. We want an evolution. What we don't want are politicians that are so rigid. Now, Gavin misstepped on a podcast where they asked him about eight pack donations and he had a really weird response. He was like, interesting, interesting, interesting. Well, he's cleaned that up since then. And he recently had another misstep and they asked him about taxing billionaires and he said he was adamantly against taxing billionaires, which was stupid for him to say because I think we have like an 80% nationwide consensus that everybody thinks billionaires should be taxed. So that's like so bipartisan. So I'm interested to see if he cleans that up, which I imagine he will. He's pretty. One thing I like about Gavin is he fights Trump really, really hard. And I like that about him. But the corporate dim thing is going to be the thing to watch. I think there could be a dark horse that rises up, up that just starts talking directly to people. Laser focused on affordability, laser focused on human rights, laser focused on not allowing people to categorize and quantify these human rights of this group are more important than this group. And if somebody takes that economic populist message and links it to the equality in economy is the same for all group. If you're trans, if you're Jewish, if you're Muslim, if you're Christian, if you're an atheist, we're not going to pick one over the other other. Everybody has the same. And if you link the human rights issue to the economic equality populist issue, somebody who comes out laser focused on that I think could surpass them all. So I'm very interested to see. I think J.B. pritzker would be very interesting because he is a billionaire and he is Jewish and he's going to come on. I've had it soon. He just had to reschedule recently, so I think we're going to have him on in January. So I'm going to ask him. I met him at the DNC and we did a sit down interview with him. I have to say, like, before the cameras even started rolling, he was chatting up with us. He's a really nice, likable person. And so I'm very interested in. And I hope that everybody keeps a big open mind about who the nominee can be.
- [41:40]
Tara Palmeri
Right. But why are they so bad on podcasts? They might be good before the podcast, but once you turn the lights on, it's just like, I don't think they get the media moment right now.
- [41:52]
Jennifer Welch
They're so. This is the problem. They need to get. They need to quit being so disciplined and they need to like, we've had so many of them on and you can just tell it's this canned response and they're just so disciplined and they stick with this corporate like cnn, MSNBC mode and they just need to go on a podcast and just let it rip. Just talk and if you misstep, clean it up later. The electorate seems a lot more accepting in the Trump era of political missteps than we ever have been before. But Democratic politicians are so risk adverse and I think that harmed Kamala. Do you remember when she first was running? Like she wouldn't do interviews with anybody anytime.
- [42:33]
Tara Palmeri
Yeah.
- [42:34]
Jennifer Welch
Do you remember that? It was like a month or something went by.
- [42:36]
Tara Palmeri
No, it was an obscene amount of time. It was 30 days. Nobody goes that long without an.
- [42:41]
Jennifer Welch
Yeah. Was it. It was. It was kind of crazy.
- [42:43]
Tara Palmeri
And so I could only imagine it was like some veep scenario where they were like cleaning her up or something. They were just like practicing lines. They're over and over again when they say this, you say this. And yet she couldn't handle the easiest questions. Which makes me realize that they probably prepared her for the hardest questions and thought, oh, she'll be fine with that. You know, when they asked her, what would you do different than your predecessor? Not a single thing comes to mind. You. They never ready for that.
- [43:06]
Jennifer Welch
Right, right.
- [43:07]
Tara Palmeri
But.
- [43:07]
Jennifer Welch
Right.
- [43:08]
Tara Palmeri
It's just.
- [43:09]
Jennifer Welch
Yeah, well, she made a huge mistake, I think, in not immediately disting, distancing herself from the status quo immediately. She should have. Even though she was a part of the status quo. She should have immediately said I was. As vice president, my job was to get in line. I'm a part of the ticket, I'm a part of this administration. But now that I'm at the top of the ticket, I disagree with the administration. I'm a part of right now. I disagree with xyz. She needed to show some daylight. And when she ran around with, with Liz Cheney. We had Sam Sader on the podcast last week. He had a really good point. Liz Cheney and Kamala felt like the status quo together. One Republican status quo, one Democrat status quo. And so then it was like, so that you. I think whoever runs as a Democrat has got to be something back. I'm talking like FDR style Democrats. We have to go back to really taking care of the working class voters because they have been abandoned, they have been demonized. And more than anything, Republicans have gone into these flyover states now for decades and lied to people. They promised them that trickle down economics happens. They've said, if you don't have money, it's because of these people or these people or these people. And it's always been the corporations and the Democrats need to go in and be tough and say, you've been lied to. They've taken, they've used your religion against you, they've weaponized it against you. And you have been completely lied to to by the Republicans and to an extent by the Democrats. And we're new dims, like kind of New Deal dims, I think is the way forward. But Democrats are stubborn. And so, I don't know. I mean, look at, look at Hakeem and chuckles. I mean, you know.
- [44:53]
Tara Palmeri
So we're gonna rip a little something from IHIP News if you don't mind, just to end this. Had it or hit it. Okay.
- [45:00]
Jennifer Welch
Okay, good.
- [45:01]
Tara Palmeri
Yeah. Men wearing eyeliner.
- [45:04]
Jennifer Welch
Oh. Oh my God.
- [45:06]
Tara Palmeri
I kind of both eyeliner. I've kind of eyeliner.
- [45:11]
Jennifer Welch
I, I like it. If it's like a, I, I kind of hit it, I'm gonna say I hit it. Here's why. I've done a lot of videos of JD Vance and talking about when he does like he, a heavier camera eyeliner. But then also if I see a guy like in Sephora that's helping me with makeup and he might have on a little eyeliner liner, I'm like, you know what you do? You, it's free country. You want to wear some eyeliner. So I'm gonna hit it.
- [45:34]
Tara Palmeri
People have argued that he has some sort of eye eyelash condition, which is a kind of Eyelash condition I would like in which it makes like, you're wearing eyelashes of eyelashes. So I would take that mutation RFK slash Sean Duffy's rule that you have to wear basically tuxedos on airplanes. I'm joking. But to get dressed up, you can't wear pajamas anymore on a flight. I don't know. I always wear sportswear. I wear like a big comfy sweater and leggings and. And sneakers on the flight. Bad enough having to fly.
- [46:11]
Jennifer Welch
I've had it. I think that these men will do anything but talk about what's happening with the airline industry. Think about what just happened. You had Pete Buttigieg under the Biden administration that we. If your flight's canceled or delayed, you can get a full refund. We all know how expensive it is to fly, how torturous it is to fl July and immediately the Trump administration, then they ax air traffic controllers with all that doge and then they reverse that refund. And now they're just trying to blame again. They want to blame people that. This kind of hits hard on Fox News. Saying that on Fox News hits hard, but in the real world. Come on, man. And I just want to say this. I fly all the time. The people that I see that aren't dressed super well on planes, they have all this maga coated merch on, like little Eagle with a little grenade. And then, you know, like, I'm a big boy. I wear big boy clothes. And. And it's always kind of like a pajama type bottom. So again, I think sometimes they're. They're starting to hit into their base some. And this is, I think, another contributing factor to the fissures that we talked about earlier.
- [47:20]
Tara Palmeri
Yeah, just creating like a faux culture war. Why not? Right? Just throw out some red meat just. Just to get people chattering about nothing. Okay. Pantone's color of the year cloud dancer, which to me is basically white.
- [47:33]
Jennifer Welch
You know, okay, I'm gonna hit it with that. It's. I'm an interior designer when I'm not a podcaster and have been for 25 years, I hit it because it's white. And here's why. Every time there's a Pantone color of the year and it's like some sort of terracotta or some sort of like, pistachio green, then I'll have clients that call me and they're like, oh, my God, did you see the Pantone color of the year? I think I want to do my den this color. And I'm like, here's the problem. Problem with following the paint color of the year. Next year there's a new one. You have a 365 day expiration date. But white is more timeless. I know that there was some sort of, like, white supremacist culture war thing attached to the color, and so I'm not responding to it in that regard. I saw something on Instagram.
- [48:16]
Tara Palmeri
Oh, my God. We'll create a controversy out of anything. That is insanity.
- [48:21]
Jennifer Welch
Insane.
- [48:22]
Tara Palmeri
Okay.
- [48:22]
Jennifer Welch
As a designer, the light was smart.
- [48:25]
Tara Palmeri
But Cloud Dancer is suddenly racist.
- [48:28]
Jennifer Welch
Yeah. It's just insane.
- [48:29]
Tara Palmeri
Are these walls racist? I'm so confused. Is there something more to it than just the fact that it's white?
- [48:39]
Jennifer Welch
No, I think that everybody just. It's usually a color. But as a designer, this is like the best advice ever, because I'll get these nutty calls from people wanting to do some trendy color, and it doesn't ever age well. You want to stay away from trends, and white walls are always in.
- [48:54]
Tara Palmeri
Okay, I'm keeping white. Thank you for that because I just moved, so. Okay. Trump's coin toss at the Army Navy game. Had it or hit it?
- [49:03]
Jennifer Welch
Had it. I mean, here's the thing. I just think he is so effeminate, Trump. I just think he's like this old queen. And you saw how he goes, you know, he just like. Like, I could have flipped it more masculine. And he's, you know, redecorating the ballroom and he's just, you know, snuggled up to the Prince of Saudi Arabia. Snuggled up to Zoran Mandani. I just think he's the biggest old queen. Mean, mean.
- [49:26]
Tara Palmeri
While listening to Broadway Phantom of the.
- [49:30]
Jennifer Welch
Opera, like that old queen all day long.
- [49:33]
Tara Palmeri
Yeah. You're so funny. Okay, politicians on Tick Tock. Had it or hit it?
- [49:39]
Jennifer Welch
Oh, my God. That depends. Okay, so we had that Wesmore on our podcast, right? Number one, he is a sensation. He is so cute. So when I was planning prepping for him, I'm not on Tick Tock very often, but I went to Tick Tock to see if he had one. And your listeners go Google this or enter this in the search. And Tick Tock, enter Governor Wes Moore Whistle dance. And he is, like, totally jammed into that song. Blow the whistle. And it just, it makes you smile and it makes you want to dance with him. And he actually has the dance moves and he's attractive and he's just. I really, really like Westmore. Now. Some politicians like Hakeem Jeffries, like, he did like a. I don't know if you saw. He's like trying to it's so cringe. They're trying to be co then it's cringe. So I think I've hit it. If it's a cool politician that knows how to bust out an eight count, I've had it.
- [50:31]
Tara Palmeri
If it's cringe, which is basically everyone. So you found one person who knows how to dance. Well, Maga Eric, my producer says Wes is a threat for real. So I think everyone can take that home. If they are a Democrat, they obviously the right sees him that way. And by the way, you know, on my team, I want to have people with a diversity of opinions who kind of reflect back what America is thinking and saying. And so I'm so happy that you were on the show. I feel like even though you've left the heartland, you brought New York. You brought it to New York. And I'm going to continue to watch your show and everyone should go watch Ihip. It's a great, fun show. My intern Abby is a huge fan as well and so show the whole team here at the Tara Palmeri Show. We all were very excited for this one.
- [51:21]
Jennifer Welch
Thank you so much and thank you for having me on.
- [51:24]
Tara Palmeri
That was another episode of the Tara Palmari Show. Thanks so much for tuning in. If you like this show, please rate it, subscribe, follow, share it with all your friends. Leave a comment if you like my reporting, go to tarapalmieri.com that's T A R a P a L m e r I.com and sign up for the Red Letter, my newsletter. It's how you get exclusive reporting straight to your inbox. And it's how you can support my independent journalism by becoming a paid subscriber. I want to thank my producer, Eric Abenate. I want to thank Abby Baker for booking this show. She also does my social media and research. I want to thank my manager Dan Rosen and Adam Stewart on the graphics. See you again tomorrow.