Dave Portnoy

Friday

Amber Duke

Celebrity endorsements take over 2024 election

It’s that time of the 2024 election... the Democrats are rolling out the celebrity endorsements. Oprah Winfrey made a surprise appearance at the Democratic National Convention, and the DNC also featured four “celebrity” hosts: Kerry Washington, Tony Goldwyn, Mindy Kaling and Ana Navarro. This week after the presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump, Harris got her white whale: pop superstar Taylor Swift. Back in January, reports said the Biden campaign was hoping for her endorsement the most.  Swift released her endorsement on her Instagram account next to a picture from her TIME Person of the Year cover holding her cat.

Friday

Cockburn

Barstool Sports’s Billy Football runs for Santos’s old seat

There’s something in the water in New York’s 3rd district, which continues to pump out interesting candidates for Congress. Of course, we had George Santos. Enough said there. Then after the colorful Santos was expelled from Congress in a historic vote, Republicans nominated Mazi Pilip, an IDF veteran and Ethiopian immigrant, who lost in a special election to Democrat Tom Suozzi, who is... vastly less interesting than his GOP counterparts. But now, Suozzi could face another colorful Republican — Bill Cotter, formerly known as Barstool Sports’s Billy Football, who joined the race a few weeks ago, and has been gathering the requisite number of signatures to appear on the primary ballot in June.

billy football bill cotter barstool sports

Friday

Mary Katharine Ham

The case against the Thanksgiving dinner fight

As we come upon the treacherous holiday season before a presidential election, there will be plenty of people in media who tell you it is your moral responsibility to ruin food and fellowship with political confrontations. Armed with the emotional IQ of one of those idiots tossing perfectly good soup on the Mona Lisa — an ineffectual waste of vittles and dignity — these columnists insist that you must not let Aunt Margie’s incorrect opinions stand, lest democracy die in the darkness of her benighted worldview. You must serve countervailing takes as hot as the mashed potatoes, no matter the cost to family comity. It doesn’t have to be this way. There was a time, not too long ago, when we didn’t have to turn every breaking of bread into a struggle session.

family

Friday

The Spectator

Feds lay out bribery case against Senator Menendez

Democratic Senator Robert “Bob” Menendez of New Jersey — and his wife — have been indicted by a Manhattan federal grand jury, according to court filings unsealed this Friday. Prosecutors allege that the couple, say, the Menendez Crime Family, accepted lavish bribes in exchange for special favors. Specifically, the family is accused of holding “a corrupt relationship with three New Jersey associates and businessmen.” The senator also allegedly accepted “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in bribes, including bars of gold, mortgage payments, a luxury car and lots of cash.  The indictment alleges that the bribes were given in exchange for official acts that enriched businessmen in his state, as well as the Egyptian government.

Cockburn

Dave Portnoy catches WaPo reporter in a web of lies

Of all the things to lead to a Washington Post smackdown, Cockburn never would have expected it to happen over a pizza festival.   On Wednesday, Barstool Sports’s Dave Portnoy posted a call with a Washington Post reporter on social media. Portnoy had caught wind that the paper was running a hit piece on his One Bite Pizza Festival taking place in Brooklyn on Saturday and decided to hit back first.   https://twitter.com/stoolpresidente/status/1704574353415823411 Portnoy was tipped off by an email that reporter Emily Heil had sent to one the event’s largest sponsors.

Friday

Cockburn

Will Trump stop using reelection money on legal bills?

Donald Trump is in the process of setting up the Patriot Legal Defense Fund, a fund to help pay off legal bills for him and his co-defendants in the four indictments he is facing, according to a report in the Messenger. Up until this point, the former president’s legal fees had been paid by his Save America super PAC. “Save America wasn’t really designed as a legal defense fund, so as the legal landscape evolved, so did this effort,” a Trump official told the site’s Marc Caputo. So who can expect to be covered? Rudy Giuliani, presumably, who is named as a co-conspirator in Fani Willis’s Georgia case, and was the beneficiary of a Trump-hosted legal fundraiser at Bedminster last night. Giuliani’s fellow election attorney Jenna Ellis?

donald trump legal reelection funds

Thursday

Ben Domenech

What does ‘Barstool conservative’ even mean?

Welcome to Thunderdome: have you placed a bet yet on if Chris Christie actually shows up to the debate with a pair of brass knuckles? It certainly would be entertaining to see the New York and New Jersey guys just ignore the rest of the field and tangle — it’d be enough to justify having the debate itself. But Trump might skip it, which makes the prospect of a DeSantis/Newsom debate the most interesting possibility on the horizon — and presents a make-or-break chance for the Florida governor. Meanwhile, Republicans struggle with how to aim their message in a time where culture war is the dominant narrative but perhaps not the most salient one.

dave portnoy

Wednesday

Rich Cromwell

Dave Portnoy’s inevitable return to owning Barstool Sports

Dave Portnoy is back as the sole chieftain of Barstool Sports. Penn Entertainment, which bought 36 percent of the company in 2020 and increased its stake to 100 percent in February 2023, sold the company back to its founder Tuesday, “in exchange for certain non-competes and other restrictive covenants.” In other words: Penn basically gave the company back to Portnoy for free. Rarely does buyer’s remorse work out so well.   Founded in Boston in 2003 as a print publication dedicated to fantasy sports and gambling, and initially completely produced by Portnoy, Barstool Sports quickly became a juggernaut in the sports and culture landscape.

dave portnoy barstool sports

Friday

Cockburn

Welcome back, Cocaine Mitch!

Welcome back, Cocaine Mitch! Cockburn reported Thursday that three top Republican senators — John Barrasso, John Cornyn and John Thune — had been “actively reaching out” to other GOP senators ahead of a possible leadership vote, “including the sixteen who voted to delay the leadership election earlier this year.” Shortly after publication, Leader McConnell tweeted, “I am looking forward to returning to the Senate on Monday.” And in an emphatic response to his Senate colleagues’ machinations, McConnell returned to the Capitol on Friday afternoon, for the first time in over a month. https://twitter.

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 7: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on March 7, 2023 in Washington, DC. McConnell spoke on a range of issues after a closed-door lunch meeting with Senate Republicans. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Monday

Rich Cromwell

Dave Portnoy still believes in America

When the media gives coverage to Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, it’s generally unfavorable. Business Insider attempted to smear "El Presidente" over his sexual predilections, then he brought the receipts. The New York Times outed him as being who he says he is — a degenerate sports gambler — only to reap the same results. What gets much less coverage is Portnoy’s love for America, American workers and American businesses. During the pandemic, when he used his stature to keep multiple small businesses afloat via the Barstool Fund, there were no glossy covers, despite the fund raising almost $42 million and supporting 443 businesses. In the mainstream press, only Fox News took note.

dave portnoy

Monday

Ben Domenech

Dave Portnoy is the degenerate gambling king

Why do people in the media keep trying to make a story out of Barstool Sports head honcho Dave Portnoy being exactly the person he claims to be? It just keeps happening. Most recently comes a pathetic attempt at a New York Times exposé that does little more than expose Portnoy for being everything his listeners, readers and fans know him to be: a mouthy, opinionated, over-the-top degenerate gambler and the court jester of a sports and gambling conglomerate that has become a dominating cultural force under his leadership. The Times apparently thinks their readership is unaware of all of this, and deems it noteworthy that he has had to climb out of the pit of gambling-fueled bankruptcy in the past. I'm only surprised that his losses were only $30,000, not ten times that.

dave portnoy

Wednesday

Rich Cromwell

You can’t kick Dave Portnoy out of a movement he was never a part of

Dave Portnoy, of Barstool Sports fame, became somewhat of a celebrity to the right during Covid thanks to the Barstool Fund, which helped small businesses stay afloat during lockdowns, and which he promoted through a number of Fox News appearances. Matthew Walther, writing at the Week, went so far as to proclaim him “the future of the conservative movement” in “Rise of the Barstool Conservatives.” While Walther’s piece correctly captured the Barstool conservatives’, and particularly Portnoy’s, views on abortion and other social matters — very bright lines in the sand between social conservatives and their Barstool brethren — that didn’t stop the idea from gaining steam. Portnoy even interviewed Trump ahead of the 2020 election.

dave portnoy

Friday

Karol Markowicz

There is no case against Dave Portnoy

#MeToo started with Harvey Weinstein, ‎Matt Lauer, R. Kelly. Big names who did very bad things. Masturbating in plants, desk buttons that locked doors, women being held against their will, rape. But now we’re on to chasing down every woman a famous man has slept with to get a couple of them to say they had a bad time. A piece in Business Insider last week accused Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy of just that. Two women accuse Portnoy of sex they didn’t enjoy. If the era of #MeToo was kicked off with Portnoy instead of Weinstein, it would have been a complete bust. #MeToo caught fire because the accusations against these famous men were so major. The accusations against Portnoy are not. Portnoy has taken the accusations very seriously and has aggressively responded.

portnoy

Friday

Cockburn

Portnoy 2024, anyone?

Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy has released his hotly anticipated interview with President Trump. Normally, in media, an interview with the president of the United States is considered a major score. But in 2020, in some circles, a non-hostile conversation with the Commander-in-Chief is a controversial act. https://twitter.com/stoolpresidente/status/1286726116594647049?s=20 https://twitter.com/stoolpresidente/status/1286729956500922373?s=20 https://twitter.com/stoolpresidente/status/1286733637698768896?s=20 In a way, it is shame. Barstool’s appeal has long been apolitical. The company’s edgy, comedic style resonates with college-aged Americans of all persuasions.

portnoy

Wednesday

Amber Duke

Daddy issues: how Barstool Sports’s top podcast backfired

All good things come to an end or, in this case, all trash must return to the trash heap. The raunchy, sex-obsessed podcast Call Her Daddy is likely ending for good after negotiations with Barstool Sports went south. Barstool, founded by Dave Portnoy aka El Presidente, currently owns the rights to the Call Her Daddy podcast, hosted by Alexandra Cooper, 27, and Sofia Franklyn, 26. The podcast mysteriously went dark for several weeks until Portnoy recorded his own episode titled ‘Daddy Speaks’ revealing that the women were shopping the show to other platforms despite being under a three-year exclusivity contract.

Call Her Daddy hosts Alexandra Cooper and Sofia Franklyn (Barstool Sports)

Tuesday

Cockburn

El Presidente vs. El Union Presidente: AOC and Barstool founder clash online

Let's get ready to rumble! Two viral sensations are squaring off on the Twitter. In the blue corner, from Massachusetts Bay, Barstool Sports president and whole pizza-eating aficionado David 'Davey Pageviews' Portnoy. And in the red corner, all the way from the Bronx, it's fiery congresswoman Alexandria 'The Red Scare' Ocasio-Cortez. The spat concerns the hottest new trend in New York media besides developing a substance abuse problem and getting fired: unionizing. Nothing offers comfort to an overcaffeinated 23-year-old fresh out of a liberal arts college quite like a big 'union' laptop sticker on a battered MacBook Air. Springsteen would be proud. The latest cluster of journavists to attempt this strategy hail from sports site The Ringer, a Barstool competitor.

barstool