Dave Portnoy doesn’t just say yes to anyone who wants to be on his podcast — including Kamala Harris.
On the Thursday, October 17, episode of The Unnamed Show, the Barstool Sports founder revealed that he either denied — or ignored — a request from the current Democratic presidential candidate’s team to be a guest on a few of the media company’s podcast.
The 47-year-old shared that her team had reached out to him and asked if she could be on “BFF, Jack Mac, which is just nuts,” Portnoy exclaimed, “and PMT [Pardon My Take].”
Barstool founder and CEO Dave Portnoy is seen before the Florida Atlantic Owls and Loyola (Il) Ramblers game in the Barstool Invitational at Wintrust Arena on November 8, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois. The Barstool Sports president explained his reasoning for turning down Vice President Kamala Harris’ offer to be a guest on one of the media company’s podcasts.
Michael Hickey/Getty Images
The podcaster told listeners he wasn’t sure if he ever responded. “I don’t even know if I got back to them … PMT said no, I said no on behalf of BFFs,” Portnoy recalled.
Portnoy cited having different political views from his BFF’s co-hosts (Josh Richards and Brianna Chickenfry) as part of why he would not want the current vice president on. “First of all, I don’t think I’d want to do it,” Portnoy began. “Second of all, if I were going to do it, I wouldn’t do it with our people because my opinions on politics aren’t theirs.”
The Massachusetts native explained he wouldn’t welcome Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump either, as he doesn’t feel he has enough knowledge of the political sphere to know when the candidates would be telling the truth.
“My issue with Trump or Kamala … if you’re asking people things and they’re answering them and you don’t know if the answers are true or not and you don’t have enough information to push back if you just kind of accept if you’re doing that, that I don’t like. It’s a real fine line,” Portnoy stated.
Portnoy went on to say he wouldn’t want to be told lies and be unable to challenge them due to a lack of awareness. “I’m just not deep enough, and you don’t know what to believe, so you don’t want to just be lied to and not have ammunition,” he remarked.
As the king of the Swifties people are asking me what I think of her Kamala endorsement. I don’t care at all. People can vote for whoever they want in this country. How somebody votes will never change my opinion of a person. I’m voting the other way but to each their own
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) September 11, 2024
In September, after Taylor Swift endorsed Harris for president, Portnoy — the self-proclaimed “King of the Swifties” posted on X (formerly Twitter) that he would be “voting the other way.” However, their political differences doesn’t change anything for Portnoy. Earlier this month, Swift had her brother Austin, hand deliver a note to Portnoy at the Eras Tour in Miami thanking him for his support.
“How somebody votes will never change my opinion of a person,” he tweeted.
