Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy railed against the GOP after the Supreme Court struck down the federal right to abortion on Friday, calling the reversal of Roe v. Wade “pure insanity” while declaring that it’s “too dangerous” to vote Republican.
Colloquially known as “El Presidente,” the head of the bro-centric sports media empire has remade himself into something of a “right-leaning populist champion” in recent years. Having long sparked controversy with allegations of racism and improper sexual conduct, Portnoy’s fame has only grown on the right due to his unapologetic stances on COVID-19 lockdowns, unionization, and “wokeness,” among other issues. In fact, political media has actually covered the rise of the so-called “Barstool Republicans.”
At odds with the majority of Republicans, though, Portnoy has been outspoken on his support for abortion rights, especially after the Supreme Court’s decision was leaked several weeks ago. And he kept that fire going on Friday after Roe v. Wade was officially struck down, posting a video of an “emergency press conference” on social media.
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“Let me start by saying this is a Dave Portnoy press conference,” Portnoy clarified, noting that his views don’t reflect Barstool Sports but he felt it was necessary to “speak on this issue” personally.
“To me, this is just pure insanity, pure insanity,” he exclaimed. “We are going backwards in time. We are literally going backwards in time! It makes no sense how anybody thinks it’s their right to tell a woman what to do with her body.”
Disagreeing with conservatives that claim it’s “a constitutional issue” and that the court is simply giving decision-making power back to the states, Portnoy noted that at least 20 states are now set to immediately ban nearly all abortions.
“And what if you’re poor in that state? And you can’t go to another state and things like that,” he sighed. “It’s just nuts to me! Not to mention the same people that are saying...they want to take it away and overturn it are also like, ‘Gotta protect guns because of the Constitution.’”
The Barstool chief continued: “At what point do you look at the Constitution and say, ‘Hey, this was written by people who had slaves. Maybe not everything is exactly to a T in the Constitution.’ Like a million years from now, you’re gonna use the document written in the—it’s just nuts. The world evolves, people evolve, technology evolves. You gotta evolve!”
While noting that “the left fucking hates me” and liberals are “insane people,” Portnoy added that because the right also “sucks so fucking bad,” he is forced to vote for Democrats.
“Yet, I end up having to vote for a moron like [President Joe] Biden because the right is gonna put Supreme Court people in who are just ruining this country, taking basic rights away,” he fumed.
Portnoy ended his rant by saying that he feels the vast majority of Americans are “socially liberal” and “financially conservative” like him but are unable to fully support the GOP.
“They like 90 percent of what Republicans say [but] they don’t like the woke culture, all this craziness,” he declared, his voice growing louder. “But then you look at what they’re doing and it’s like, you’re taking away basic rights. What’s next, same-sex marriage? Like what is next? It’s insane.”
Portnoy concluded: “That’s why we have to vote for the morons like Biden, who’s borderline incompetent because it’s too dangerous to vote Republican. Like what the fuck are we doing? Wake up!”
