Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy doubled down on his promise not to rent applicants from Harvard, MIT and UPenn following a disastrous congressional testimony where the heads of those high-profile universities failing to sentence on-campus antisemitism.
“There’s a difference between free speech and hate speech, and while you’re endangering people and causing harm, I believe you bought to place a stop to it. It’s called common sense,” Portnoy told Fox Business on Tuesday.
“When you can’t condemn genocide — I don’t care whether we’re talking Jews, Muslims, any group of individuals — then you definitely don’t need to be able of power,” Portnoy added. “You bought to get out.”
The 46-year-old was seemingly suggesting that Harvard President Claudine Gay and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth should step down from their respective positions.
The University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill stepped down on Sunday after mounting pressure from each donors and the White House following the testimony, when she was repeatedly asked if calling for the genocide of Jewish people would violate her university’s rules on bullying and harassment.
“If the speech turns into conduct, it could possibly be harassment,” Magill said.
Dave Portnoy told Fox Business on Tuesday that Harvard, MIT and UPenn’s respective presidents “don’t need to be able of power.” So far, only UPenn head Liz Magill has been ousted from her job. Fox Business
Meanwhile, Harvard said on Tuesday that its embattled president Gay will keep her job — even after reportedly losing greater than $1 billion in donations since her catastrophic congressional testimony about antisemitism.
“It was disgusting what those deans and presidents did under oath. It is not sensible to me,” Portnoy said of the congressional testimony.
When Fox asked Portnoy about concerns over free speech, Portnoy responded: “Is Hitler allowed to say, ‘I need to kill the Jews,’ ‘I need to kill the Jews,’ ‘I need to kill the Jews’ right up until he kills the Jews? I’d say no.”
Portnoy also clarified that though he doesn’t plan on hiring any Harvard, MIT and UPenn graduates in the longer term, there’s already two Harvard athletes on Barstool’s payroll: former hockey player Sam Bozoian and ex-lacrosse player Francis Ellis.
“They’re grandfathered in,” Portnoy told Fox.
Portnoy’s comments on Tuesday amplify a stance he made on Instagram last week, when he shared a video clip from the controversial testimony captioned: “This video has made me so irate I want to be certain as many individuals see it as possible.”
Within the week because the video has been posted, Portnoy’s post on the social media site — where he goes by @stoolpresidente — has been viewed over 10 million times.
On Tuesday, Harvard announced that President Claudine Gay will keep her job despite the congressional testimony, which Portnoy classified as a display of “hate speech.” AP
He went on to say he would not consider hiring applicants who attended any of the three schools until they made leadership changes, and he urged other businesses to do the identical.
“Not that this can make an enormous difference but moving forward I won’t hire any student who graduates from any of those schools until these Deans step down,” Portnoy wrote, noting he wouldn’t make exceptions for Jewish applicants from the institutions.
Portnoy continued within the caption: “The Deans of three supposedly prestigious Universities in the USA one way or the other refusing to sentence students calling for the Genocide of Jews on campus. AKA – the murder of all Jews. Newsflash that is asking for the murder of myself, my parents and my entire family. And these ‘leaders’ refuse to sentence this as hate speech on their campuses?”
He claimed Jewish students are the one minority group that other students “could openly intimidate and chant that they wish to murder a complete group of individuals and never get kicked out immediately or higher yet thrown in jail.”
Portnoy posted a clip from the testimony to his Instagram because he desired to “be certain as many individuals see it as possible.” Within the week because it’s been posted, the video has garnered over 10 million views. Jackie Brown / SplashNews.com
Jewish students at UPenn at the moment are saying that the resignation of Magill and Chairman Scott Bok was not enough to make them feel secure following a series of antisemitic incidents, arguing that further “change” at the varsity was vital.
“There’s a realization that one step is over,” junior Akiva Berkowitz told USA Today outside of Steinhardt Hall, home to the varsity’s Hillel club. “But the method is just not and I don’t want people to think that is the top.”
Sophomore Jack Cohen said despite Magill and Bok’s resignation, “It’s not comfortable here” and demanded that more be done.
“At the top of the day, we wish to see more change,” he said. “We wish to feel more supported.”
