Jennifer Welch praised Minocqua Brewing Company on her podcast Tuesday after the Wisconsin business criticized Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk and offered to sponsor the show. The offer came as sponsors were dropping Welch and co-host Angie Sullivan following their laughter at a joke about digging up Kirk’s body after his assassination last year.
Producer Kiley Josey read a Facebook post from the brewery that called Kirk a racist and an awful person. The post said the company was sorry the hosts had lost sponsors and offered to partner with them instead.
Welch thanked the brewery on air, saying it didn’t need to pay for a sponsorship and that the show would be glad to promote its products. Josey also mentioned the brewery’s anti-Trump and anti-Republican merchandise, which Welch praised, saying she admired businesses that stood by their principles.
Minocqua Brewing Company has drawn attention before for offering free beer on the day Trump dies. After an alleged assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in April, the brewery posted that the promised “free beer day” had nearly arrived, then speculated that the attacker either needed better aim or that Trump had staged the incident for favorable coverage.
Welch later said she and Sullivan had not known about the brewery before the episode. She said listeners had tagged them in its post, which they read without knowing about the company’s earlier remarks. The hosts, she added, had no relationship with the brewery and did not intend to form one.
TPUSA spokesperson Andrew Kolvet blamed Welch and Sullivan for losing sponsors, saying the organization had not organized a boycott. He said listeners and advertisers were reacting to what they saw as the podcast’s repeated mockery of assassination, and that the hosts were refusing to take responsibility.
Minocqua Brewing Company declined to comment.
