Dave Portnoy has spoken up about calls for him to run for office.
The social media personality, who has become one of the biggest names in sports, pop culture—and pizza reviews—as president of Barstool Sports, made clear he has no political ambitions in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning.
“I mean, who the heck would want to get into politics anyways?” he said. “People always ask me that. It’s like, what are you, crazy? You can get more done as a private citizen. Everyone just hates your guts.”
While Portnoy believes “99 percent of politicians are scumbags,” he also expressed concern about political violence, citing the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, as well as attacks on President Donald Trump, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, and the husband of House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi.
“Look at what happened to Charlie Kirk. Serious stuff. Like, I don’t want that in my life,” he said. “I like my life.”
After Kirk was shot in September, Portnoy, a three-time Trump voter, said the president played a role in the assassination.
“Politics definitely has a huge part in it. Trump, and when I say Trump has a huge part in it, I don’t necessarily mean he’s to blame for it, but he’s so divisive without really even… just his face is like divisive, like he just, people hate him so much,“ he said at the time.
But that doesn’t mean his loyalty has shifted elsewhere. Portnoy told CBS News that he saw Democrats as “anti-normal guys.”
“There’s a lot of, you know, white dudes who are like, ‘Well, I’m not the bad guy. Like, what are you getting mad at me for? I wasn’t here for colonialism or any of the stuff that you guys are complaining about 200 years ago. Like, what did I do?’”
“And even with the Trump stuff, he won the election,” he added. “You had a candidate basically calling you a deplorable or, you know, you’re a Nazi if you vote for Trump. I don’t know if they used that exact word, but it felt like that.”
Portnoy has long been haunted by his history of sexist and racist remarks, including calling a woman a “f—ing slut” and mocking former NFL star Colin Kaepernick for kneeling during the national anthem. He has repeatedly defended many of his comments as a joke.
“I object strenuously to that,” Portnoy said of the criticism. “And I hate them. They’re the ones who have said it, or people who don’t like me. I feel like virtually every single criticism—and some of ‘em are brutal—have context around them that a fair-minded person, if they looked at the evidence, would be like, ‘What they’re saying about him’s just not true.’ But once it’s said, it will never go away.”
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