Will Cain Country - Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy Responds To Attacks By The Media

Episode Date: January 30, 2024

Story #1: El Presidente! A conversation with the founder of Barstool Sports Dave Portnoy. Story #2: Somalia first puts America last: treason by Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN). Story #3: A post game film session with the boys on Dave Portnoy's interview.   Tell Will what you thought about this podcast by emailing [e-mail]   Follow Will on Twitter: @WillCain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For a limited time at McDonald's, enjoy the tasty breakfast trio. Your choice of chicken or sausage McMuffin or McGrittles with a hash-brown and a small iced coffee for $5.00 plus tax. Available until 11 a.m. at participating McDonald's restaurants. Price excludes flavored iced coffee and delivery. One. El Presidente. conversation with the founder of Barstool Sports, Dave Portnoy. Two, Somalia First meets America First, the treason of Congresswoman Elon Omar. Three, post-game film session with the boys on Dave Portnoy.

It's the Will Cain Show streaming live at foxnews.com and at the Fox News YouTube page. on demand in video, Will Kane Show on YouTube and in audio format wherever you get your podcast, Apple, Spotify, or at Fox News Podcasts. Go hit subscribe on any of those given channels and get the Will Kane Show whenever you like. We've got a big show today coming up. We're going to talk about Ilan Omar saying it goes Somalia, then Muslim, then American in her order of priority. We'll break down as well. Story number one, which we will begin right now with. the founder of Barstool Sports, Dave Portnoy. Story number one. What's up, Dave? How's it going? Glad to have you here on the Will Kane show. You made me a little nervous. I never had you pegged for a show up early guy. You've been waiting like 10 minutes for this show to start live. But I guess I should have known when I saw the videos of you reintering Barstool and showing up and not seeing anybody at 8 a.m. In the New York offices, your grinder, man. You show up early. Yeah, I'm always an early guy, especially when you do these foxings. They usually do like the testing for about 10 minutes tell you where to sit, all that jazz. But yeah, I'm

always an early person. You know, I was thinking about you. I don't know how you do this, but because I filter every sports viewing fandom issue through the prism of being a Dallas Cowboy fan. I root against anybody that threatens the legacy of the Dallas Cowboys. So I will like, for example, always root against the San Francisco 49ers. I don't want as many Super Bowl appearances. I don't want the same number of Super Bowl wins. Of course, you're Patriots. superseded the Cowboys. You're kind of painting yourself as a Swifty, but are you going to root for the Chiefs?

Because at some point here, now, they're going to become a threat to the Patriots dynasty. I put 500 grand on the Chiefs. So, yeah, I'm going to root for the Chiefs. 500 grand on the Chiefs. Yeah. I think it's stealing. You don't worry about, look, you've got six, what is it,

six franchise Super Bowls? Yeah, we got six, Brady's got seven. So, but I mean, you don't work, like, Mahomes gets, what is this? This would be number three for Mahomes in like a five-year span. I mean, it'll be 28 years old. He'll be well on his way to racking up more than Brady and putting the Chiefs on a path, path to supersede the Patriots. So you mentioned the Cowboys and the 49ers, and obviously the Cowboys have had a couple different iterations of being good and being in Super Bowls. the chiefs to me

the Patriots beat them Brady beat Mahomes in Kansas City the Patriots is so bad I don't really view them as a rival I don't view anybody as a rival right now because the Patriots stink

and they're great I can accept greatness so I don't think like I hated the Peyton Manning era I thought Peyton Manning for a long time versus Brady it was Peyton Manning this Peyton Man is this, that, and the Patriots go beat the crap out of them.

That offended me on a personal level. The Chiefs are doing it. I felt like I was watching the old school Patriots the other day. The way that they came out with Kelsey and Mahomes reminded me of Gronk and Brady. So I don't feel that. They have a long way to go, by the way. Winning three versus winning six, they're going for three. Two different things.

So I'm not threatened by that yet. Maybe they'll change if they get to five. but you know they're great they're great and they're worthy to be starting the conversation are they the next patriots i'm fine with that yes and and you're right three is way different than six but as somebody that is forced to live in the past i have to live in the 90s and then tell stories about the 70s which i didn't get to experience you're you're kind of headed that way and so you're going to start hanging your hat on well we're the greatest franchise in the NFL we have the most Super Bowls and Super Bowl appearances. And I'm telling you right now, I would start

to get worried about the Chiefs. I don't care if Andy reads the coach, as long as they have Patrick Mahomes. Yeah, no, he's great, but people have just absolutely slept that Joe Burrow has hurt. I think the Bengals are very good when he's back. They beat them. You still Josh Allen. Josh Allen doesn't have, like I'm not a Lamar guy. Josh Allen has played great. I think you make a coaching change in Buffalo. They can be, and the AFC's loaded. The guy in C.J. Stroud, I think, is excellent.

I'm not there yet. You mentioned the Cowboys. You've had futility since the 90s. We were... I know. I'm still... It's not that long ago that the Patriots are the best team. So we're coming off of it.

I've had a couple lean years. I don't know. I don't have that fire of hating the Chiefs. And again, the Chiefs never beat us when it matter. We beat everybody when it mattered. So maybe not the Giants But there's no teams that really stick in my craw So you got

There's no teams in the NFL right now The stick in your craw There's nobody you root against No Because again the Patriots are so bad That And we dominated for so long There's nobody that I feel like

Got the best of us I really Like when the Patriots were great Yes I had a lot of enemies A lot I hated Patriots Manning like poison. I hated the Jets because what they did to Belichick. Buffalo was like a little brother. I hated Baltimore. There were a lot of teams I really hate it. But, you know, when you're the worst team in the league, you go from the best to the worst. We just, we're in our own world again,

just on the opposite end of the spectrum. And now you got half a million dollars in Taylor Swift to root for in the form of the chiefs. Hey, what do you make of this thing everybody's saying? that the NFL is fixed? You know, that's garbage. They'd be the greatest script writers of all time, but that's absolutely garbage. But you're not someone who's put trust in the NFL in the past. I mean, you're a little bit of someone who's earned some skepticism in the NFL.

I mean, everyone knows your relationship with Roger Goodell. It was rigged against the Patriots. That's a different story. But there is not that element. Like Goodell doesn't, you know, Lamar to the Super Bowl, that's the good story. The bills to the Super Bowl, unbelievable story with Buffalo. Kansas City, yeah, they have Taylor Swift going again, but there's no advantage. He obviously, with everything he did with SpyGate, the Flakegate, he hated the Patriots,

throwing me in jail. He would do anything. There was Roger Goodell, there's no team that he could stand up on the podium, give the trophy to, and be booed. roundly like he was with the Patriots where he had to put, you know, his tail between the legs and run out of there. So that's different. They tried to cheat against the Patriots,

but now, no, what's the agenda? For what reason? Detroit would have been a better story. Like, the better story for the Super Bowl would be Detroit. I think it's idiocy as well. I mean, if the NFL were fixed, the Cowboys would not be losing in the wild card

to divisional round. There are ratings juggernaut. the NFL put them in the Super Bowl, or at least the NFC championship game, which they haven't been in in 30 years. But Dave, the theory goes, Taylor Swift, Super Bowl, massive ratings. By the way, there's an even deeper conspiracy. I think even Vivek Ramoswamy tweeted it out where it puts Taylor in a prime position to then endorse Joe Biden and swing the future of the country. Yeah, well, here's the thing. I'm a Swifty, and it's insulting to Swifties to act as though she needs the NFL to somehow enhance her brain or brand.

Taylor Swift is bigger than the entire NFL could sell out more stadiums than the entire NFL in other countries. Taylor Swift is a worldwide phenomenon. I love Taylor Swift. She don't need football. She like football needs Taylor Swift. Yeah. So they put her in the Super Bowl.

Well, Travis Kelsey. Yeah, so they need Taylor Swift. Listen, I'm giving you the voice of the conspiracy. Well, you've got crazy people all over the world that say crazy thing. The bigger conspiracy, if you want to get into conspiracy theories, it's not even conspiracy, is why the NFL doesn't have full-time reps. So you have 65-year-old men running at 100th of the speed of the athletes, getting paid basically like a grocery bagger at your local 7-Eleven.

You're going to have some weird call. So that, I don't know if that's against, maybe they like the chaos because you're going to have idiotic decisions calls all the time when you have out of shape old people reffing the fastest game in the world. I do wonder if they sit back, look, I had a daily radio show on ESPN and Mondays are about breaking down awful calls, which is just more content for the NFL. And I do wonder if they've ever sat back and said, you know, net positive all of this controversy. Maybe, because why else want you have, it's like, what, a bazillion dollar league and you can't pay full-time officials? It makes no sense. Hey, let's go back to the grind for a minute. You being a guy that shows up early, I've wondered this about you. You know, you've told the story of handing out papers in Boston, you know, the origin stories of Barstool. What I'm kind of curious about, and I don't know if you've said this or if I just kind of picked this idea up, but the pizza reviews, which are super popular. one of your biggest things, I think. I don't think there was a grand plan.

I think you've said that before. Like when you started doing the pizza reviews, I don't think you had any vision that it would become what it has become. But when you were founding Barstall Sports, brick by brick, did you have a vision for what it's become? I'm kind of curious if you're the kind of entrepreneur that sits down with the big vision and then sets about executing that vision

or sort of just keeps perpetual motion going until you find success. perpetual motion. There was definitely no grand plan. I think, I'm sure there's some entrepreneurs who have a grand plan. I would guess they're few and far between. There's probably far more entrepreneurs who are full of crap and say they had a grand plan of what they expected. But in my world, we started as a newspaper and then, you know, the internet wasn't really humming. So there's no way to predict it. People still ask me, where do I see Barcelona in five years? Well, during the course of running Barcelona, so I didn't know MySpace would exist, dating myself, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, everything. So how can you ever know where you're going to be in five years when you don't know what the next six months is going to bring? Everything changes. The biggest advantage, there's a bunch of things, right place, right time, right guy.

But we've been nimble, just nimble. We're not stuck in our ways. And a lot of networks that we've competed against are the opposite. They're stuck in their ways, old school, older. I'd like to say we're like one of the first true digital media companies and we've just reacted quickly and been able to maneuver. And, you know, I think if people ask me what is the best compliment you can give to Barcelona sports, we've managed to stay cutting edge cool if you want to say it for like 20 years. Very hard to do for a media company. Eventually you get stale, get old and the next new guy comes.

maybe thanks to Roger Goodell, thanks to whoever, we've managed to stay cool. Well, so when your sort of philosophy, or at least tactic, is stay nimble. So whatever it's going to be, we're going to jump into that and we're going to try to dominate that. That's got to come, that comes with a significant amount of failure as well. I mean, you've got to be willing to fail, pivot, succeed, chase, every step of the way. So, like, is there a tolerance? Like, I don't even know, like, is it 80% of the stuff you're trying and failing? If you're constantly moving and no, no, no, no, no.

Pivot this way, pivot that way. Do you ever run the risk of moving on too quick, by the way, Dave? Oh, that's a failure. And it turns out, oh, we probably dumped that too quick. Yeah, I suppose. Like, I never thought podcasting would be big. I made fun of our guys doing it early. Good for us.

They kept doing it. and it exploded. So I'm not the end-all-be-all with knowing what works. We also give our talent a ton of freedom. So, you know, I can't think of what other people think of, and they can't think of what I think of. And if they hit something, what we're good at, it's almost like a band label.

We try to find talented people and then say, go do your thing. And we'll support it. We'll give you the resources. And through the years, you know, whether it's a Pat McAfee or call her daddy, a big cat, a million dollars worth a game, Bustin with the boys, myself, whatever it is. They're all radically different. Jenna Marbles, a lot of people may not even know who that is.

She's like the first, like, female YouTube star. She worked for us when she exploded. So it's just finding talent and letting go nuts. So is there a, when you find talent, and I've used you guys, and I could be accurate or inaccurate with this, but it seems to me the modern day media company is built around, it's like you find three to five tent pole personalities. And those personalities become.

the media company and around those personalities, you've got to build whatever it may be profitable content production warehouses, whatever it is. You know, I mean, that's the daily wire. You can look at three to five big personalities. It's most media companies. You, it's pretty easy to find, you know, the tent poles of Barstool. But I'm going to give you an example, and I'll say this on air. I've said it to you in private.

I'm a huge fan. You know this of Jersey Jerry, right? I think Jersey Jerry is hilarious. I think he's incredibly talented. I can't believe he started out as a caller on my radio show back at ESPN. But you got to find, like, you take a guy like that and you think, okay, I got to find or he's got to find a platform. So, you know, he's got to find, what I don't know what's going to be, podcast, YouTube show,

something. Those personalities have to become part of your business in some way. Yeah. And we don't always know what it is. A perfect example I didn't mention the first time around is Caleb Presley. So Caleb's a wildly talented guy, and he was with us for years before I. I would say he found his niche, which now he does a Sunday show, Sunday conversation. It's great.

Insanely popular. It took years for him to find his thing. Jerry just started this Jerry after dark, which is him just basically mutilating himself, I guess, is the way that I would describe it. But it's like that's wildly successful. So we don't put a time clock, again, you find, I'd agree with what you said. The analogy I used when I sold Barstool, the first. time, half of it, we want to be like a new aid Saturday Night Live. You find your cast of people, core people, create content, and if a couple people leave, the core is there and you keep

looking for new talent. And we've become fortunate that a lot of young, comedian, talented people, they want to come. So like Jerry wanted to join. And, you know, I had to find Caleb. But people send us, and we have our pick sort of, of, you know, up and coming, people it's harder now it gets harder the flip side of that with social media a lot of people don't need the network anymore you can go be successful yourself so you're going to find them young so by the way Caleb and Sunday conversations is awesome um I don't give gratuitous compliments I think that's an awesome show as well um let's marry these two conversations we're having about you being nimble and making quick decisions and then you know you finding these talents and putting them

in positions to succeed so what happened with barstool radio it just didn't do what you wanted them to do the mission of the show so yeah barstle radio started we used to have our own station on serious and i did a daily show um and it was really it could be anything but but the thesis of it was inside or barstall drama which we air out we're very honest and then we didn't renew a serious and barstool radio basically went away um i became quite a bit more wealthy and the time that we didn't renew and my interest in doing a daily radio show basically really went away unless somebody was going to pay me so much money. So we brought it back after I got the company back started with Kevin Clancy, KFC, who's been with us forever. He stopped doing it. And two new people did it, Kelly Kiggs and Francis. There was a

big controversy in there. There's probably boring people. Big controversy involving Kelly Kiggs. She didn't talk about it on Barsoil radio. That's the antithesis. of what barstall radio is and you're fired i mean you've basically fired or you canceled the show cancel the show yeah instant instant cancel why why the rash decision why so no meeting they no talking it over yeah no if they can't figure that out then they'll never figure it out there's no like if you don't get that you're never going to get it versus that patience you talked about a minute ago finding out what Caleb will succeed at. Kelly Kieg is very good at covering Taylor Swift and people make fun of it. Why you're covering Taylor Swift? Listen, Taylor Swift is an industry onto

herself. So she's very good at that, but that's not Barstall Radio. So she could be successful somewhere else. Caleb Presley was on the original iteration of Barstall Radio. He hated it. Wasn't his bag. Go find something else. She wasn't fired from the company. That show just got canceled. You're right. Some people will probably be bored by the inner dynamics of Barstall. I'm curious about it. But I'm also curious. But no, I'm also like always trying to dig a little deeper. I'm just kind of curious as you, you as an entrepreneur and you as a leader in making decisions. And you said something there, you got rich. I'm curious. Like, it's easy to grind when you're working towards, you know, this sort of idea of a promise land, which you sort of

reached, Dave. Like, you know, whatever you're worth, I'm sure at that moment, it seemed like the payoff for the brick by brick handing out papers on the streets of Boston. But now you're back and you find yourself in the same leadership position. I'm kind of curious if it's not hard for you to get back up for the grind. No. Here's the thing. Before I start Barstool, I had a nine to five. I did sales and I did that for, I don't know, five, six, seven years. It makes you appreciate what Barstool is. So, yeah, it's a grind. You know, we got to live stream football games.

We got to talk about things we want to talk about. This is Barstool in a lot of respects. If you can't throw a 98 mile per hour fastball in the black or you can't, you know, run a 4.140, this is a dream job. so yes i don't have to work anymore this is not work it never has been work it's like we we this has been a fantasy trip that i you know you sometimes close your eyes i can't believe we made it here so yes i get it you got to do the shows you got to talk about it it's tough to complain and that drives me by the way nuts about some of my employees they've never had real jobs i know what it's like to have a really 99.9% of people who wake up hate their job nine to five they wake up

it's dark out they get home it's dark out they don't like that's not us so you know oh shoot i got to go spend a week in Vegas at the super bowl young dave 25 years would have cut somebody's you know head off to have that opportunity so it's all relative what about uh you know i'm going to move on to some things outside of the inner dynamics of Barstool in just a moment, but the CEO, Erica Nardini, left. So what's the future? Are you going to run Barstool? Are you looking for a new CEO? No, just me. I'll run it. I was probably more involved than people realized, yeah. She's there if I need her or questions. Here's the benefit of getting to my position. On the way up, you've got to kiss a lot of ass, and you've got to be like, okay,

these meetings, if I don't want to do something or I don't like it, I don't do it and I don't like it. I'm short. I'm Kurt. That probably will be the biggest sea change for Barcelona employees. Erica was great, open door policy, treated everybody almost like family. You have a complaint. She had a ear. You have a complaint and you'll go go tell the wall. I don't care. So that will be a little bit of a difference for people at Barstool. I really don't have, if someone wants to complain, it won't be to me. What about New York? You're going to stay in New York?

You built this whole big thing in Chicago. So what's the future of New York? We still have the New York office, a lot of people, a lot of business people content. Chicago's a fun factory that Dan built. I'm in Miami, Texas. So I have built my life around the 183 model. So I will get my 183 days. here and then i'll spend a lot of time new york chicago uh but i could get my 183 but you keep

the new york office oh yeah yeah well i checked in where we have like we're we're under contract till i don't know like the year 4 000 so yes okay one more uh i wanted to ask you this so you brought it up you're rich um hey man you and i've only met in person once i don't care i'm going to ask you the quick questions that made me curious you look different than you did when you were young, Dave. And what I want to figure out is what you did. Like, you lost weight, for sure. You're saying I look better now.

Well, it's not just, yes, and yes, you look better now. Do you think I was going to say, no, you've really let yourself go? No, no, I know. It's a well-known thing. Well, uh... What'd you do? Is this, is this, you got rich and you started eating right and working out? Do you do an H-GH?

Like, what's going on here? So, when I started Barstool, I literally, would be at my computer and we blogged it was a writing world and I would write 24 seven I've told this but I would get Panera for lunch I would you know a Caesar salad comes with a little baguette I would also get the full baguette and eat the whole thing for lunch and then a pizza for dinner no exercise so I was gross then I was also married I got divorced from I know they're still like best friends with food that was in the kitchen gone I started going out because you have to meet people.

Adderall. I was taking Adderall, losing my hunger, so the weight went off, and it just never really came back. But I don't work out. Really? I have a bummed shoulder. I can't do anything. You don't work out at all.

Not at all. You got a private chef. Well, I started hot boy walks. So I walk like three miles a day. You've got, surely you've got like a private chef making sure you eat right now. No, I literally order takeout every day. What about Adderall? You still on Adderall?

No, not as much because I've switched into, so I was going out a lot. I went through like a party phase. So I don't do that anymore. So it's early to bed, early to rise. So I would take Adderall if I was out late, I was exhausted, I needed it. If I really need to be sharp, if I feel like I'm about to get to a debate with an enemy, Adderall. Oh. Yeah.

Keep that thing going quick. Speaking of enemies, let's talk about Business Insider and Ackman. It looks like you met Wall Street financier, Bill Ackman, who's got a vendetta now against Business Insider. They're going after him because he went after Harvard. Yours thing goes back with Henry Blodgett and the reporter who, I don't remember her name, a business insider. Did you meet up with Ackman? Did you launch a grand war plan? Yeah, well, he's brilliant.

You meet certain guys and they just strike you as brilliant. I kind of figured he was because I don't know how he writes the tweets that he writes their thesis tweets that would take me two weeks to write. I'm glad he, I'm glad his enemies are my enemies. It really, it, I, seeing the names that he hates, it's like a bad memory from the past. And, you know, I never really, business are scumbags. And when I say scumbags, that's way too light. What they did to me is actually, it was eye opening the scare, is it's 0.0.0, not

0.01 truth, anything they wrote, zero. And they knew exactly what they were doing. They knew what they could say, what they didn't. I went the lawsuit route, and I thought I would win. I'm like, there's no way somebody can get away with it. But they use the laws of public figures, defamation, and everything in between. They all deserve great bodily harm. They really do.

They're the worst people I've ever encountered. And I hope Ackman takes them out. They're a worthy adversary, and they're everything that is wrong with human beings. But with human beings, I think you're going to say the media. What I was going to say is that attack on you, obviously in your mind, is the most egregious. But it's not the only one. I mean, I don't even remember.

You've probably had, have you had the New York Times and the Washington Post, right? Hit pieces. I think you asked. I've had everybody on the sun. Everybody. Yeah. So here's what I'm why. Why are you a target?

Something I've never truly figured out is why we are a target, because I feel like the things I say and do aren't too dissimilar from what a lot of people say and do, but we are generally the ones that get the headlines. I will say, however it started, I do not apologize if I don't feel like we screwed up. And I certainly don't back up. I lean into it. Like you want to take an example would be Deadspin, one of the worst, obviously, publications of all time. There was a woman there, Laura Wagner.

And she hated my guts. She must have talked about me 50 times before I acknowledged her existence. And I mean, me, stuff I would say. I actually thought she kind of like was playing along. Like I'm an Adderall, Adderall riddled raisin and all these things, just mean things. And I did a blog that said any woman who hates me this much, I think I'm in love with and used the clip from George Costanza from Seinfeld. there's an exact scene where a woman just hates him.

He's like, anybody who hates me this much. Well, you take, they then take that as serious, and then they print that, and then I respond to it in my tone, and on and on we go. So that played a factor. It intensified, for sure, when I interviewed Donald Trump. He really hadn't done anything. He's much more like he does a lot of stuff like the Nelke boys and Dana White. all that he hadn't done as much of that he was a sitting president when i interviewed him and he breaks people what year was that was so that was uh right before the election probably two or three months

before the election the 16 election yes the one he lost oh yeah this oh before 20 i remember when you sat down with him i just can't remember so that's the set that's his reelection campaign that's 20 and here's why i bring that up there's two things i want to follow up with on this you are on an approved hit list okay that's what's happened and i don't know why but you are and there are some people in the public sphere who are deemed appropriate targets and some that are not i am i will always be and we it's pretty easy to figure out why i would be because of my open political leanings right um you know everybody who believes yeah i mean i used to i go Tucker i've been on a million times so anytime you go on Tucker Carlson regardless of what you

talk about and we don't talk politics when i go on there. But, you know, and I've said I'll go on anybody. Anybody wants to talk to me. Invite me on. But, Dave, I think you were, I think you were Target before you went on Tucker. I think you were target. I was at ESPN. I remember when Barstall Van Talk or whatever it was called was not, you know, came and then was canceled internally. So there's something the why doesn't have to do with your political, here's the thing. I don't know if you're a righty or a lefty. In fact, I wanted to ask you that. I don't know if you'd answer it. You don't run for many things. But I don't know your political innings.

They're certainly painting you because you're on my program right now or you went on Tucker or whatever it may be. They're painting you as a righty. But I've seen your abortion position as well. So, I mean, what are you? I would describe myself as a libertarian is what I'm conservatively. I'm financially conservative, socially liberal. But I also am a people person.

I've said this many times. I don't like either candidate we have right now, having said that it's a no-brainer i would vote for trump over biden like but it that is not because i think trump is the perfect guy for the job um i just i mean Biden has dementia i would like and i think politics stinks in general like the first time trump ran i was very pro-trump i'm like he'll break politics the the political spectrum but i also want someone who's going to unite the country and he's wildly divisive like i don't i don't think most normal people want to live in this country that is wildly, wildly divided, and I think

Trump will win. And I don't think that's going to bring the country together. There's the people who hate his guts no matter what he does. And that's not necessarily, well, you could argue it. You could say it's his fault, not his fault. But I want the country to like each other and get along. So I'm all over the map. Do you see anybody? You can't ask. Is there anybody you like that you think could do that? Well, I am trying. Where's my girl? Yeah, people are getting mad.

I like Nikki Haley. Really? Yep, I do. Do you think, okay, I'm going to be real with you. I'm not a big fan. Okay, and everybody's, oh, Will, you're far right. Whatever. I don't even know what that means anymore.

I don't know what right and left means. It's a weird spectrum that doesn't explain what somebody believes. Because the idea that Trump is far right is absurd. I mean, most of his positions are some amalgam. Well, most of his positions, are things that are some amalgamation of what used to be populist left and some conservative things. But I think there's this mindset, Dave, and I'm, and I'm, the word isn't worried. I'm thinking you've got sucked in, but you can explain yourself. This mindset that sees everything through

a rhetorical lens. And you're not wrong. The country is divided. And a lot of things Donald Trump says seems to inflame those divisions. But what people then react to is, I want something that feels moderate, even if their politics are not moderate. And I don't think Nikki Haley's are, I literally don't think her politics are that moderate. She just got a moderate personality. But that, I want to debate that, and I don't always get that deep into the policies. I think I just said almost the people. What you just said could be 100% true, but it's not going to change the reaction of the person who is elected, meaning, Trump's policies. He could probably be left at this point. The people who don't like him are never going to like it. He has broken people's brain. Right. So knowing that, if you want the country to get along, I'm not even policies, whatever. It's the person. And again, you can say it's not, well, what is he supposed to do about that? But that's the world we live in. My dad is the perfect example. I mentioned he hates Donald Trump. When you press him, why? How? How?

What? He doesn't really have an answer, but there's nothing he could do. He could give my dad a thousand bucks. He's like, well, he didn't give me $2,000. Like, and that, unfortunately, is a lot of the country. So when I say I don't think Trump's the perfect candidate is not really even, you could replace it. It's like, I want the country to get along. We need to get along and unite. And I don't know that that's possible. Again, and he doesn't strike me as the type of guy who's going to be like, I will change what I'm doing, even if he could. And he's like me in that regard. It's like, if you hate me and you've been wrong to me, screw you. I'm not going to go out of my way. But I'm running a media blog. I'm not the president of the United States. So I was going to ask you two whys. And that's kind of interesting you brought him and you together.

There's actually some similarities in the personality. This is actually a lot. Do you think there's a lot of similarities between your personality and Trump's? I mean, if you get on a hit list for either of you. Yeah, I can certainly to see the comparison of, Like, if you don't like me, I will not like you 100x back and really go out of my way to try to make your life miserable. But again, I'm a media blog. I'm not the president.

I have no grand responsibility in my mind you unite. You don't like me. I'm going to try to make your life miserable. If you like me, I'll like you back 10 times harder. So I think he has that in him. And I also think he sort of takes the president as like a game show. He's brilliant. He's brilliant. So, Dave, I'm just going to go and follow my curiosity.

You tell me when you've got to go as well. But that's what, you know, this has come up before. Like, what you said, if you don't like me, I'm going to dislike you 10 times harder. If you like me, I'll return that like a hundred times over. I'm trying to figure out, like, it kind of makes a relationship transactional, Dave, right? Like, are there people in your life that you're loyal to? regardless of how you feel about them personally. I know that's, of course, everything comes down

to are you together or not. You know what I mean, but like, I don't know. Yeah, say, here we criticize you. Which I would do to your face, Dave. If I had a criticism of you, I would do it to your face. I'm never, I don't believe in stuff behind people's backs, right? And I imagine that wouldn't upset you that if I criticize you to your face. But I wouldn't think it would.

But I'm just trying to figure out like this idea that relationships are always built upon, you know, were you nice to me or do you like me? I don't know. I don't know. There's also an element of fairness that I should add in because what I found is the people who don't like me take a business insider, a New York Times, a Washington Post, and I've documented this. They've gone in with an opinion already made of me, and I've offered.

Let's sit down. You can interview me. You can ask me any question you want. I just want the ability to record it so you can't edit what I'm saying. and none of them have taken me up on that offer. And when you're starting the things business insiders accusing me of, and the star witness, New York Times, same, is saying, let's talk about it.

I will talk at you. I am an open book, and they run away from it. That makes me hate you. If you have a problem with me, I don't really care, and you're entitled, I'm not everyone's cup of tea. But if you have a problem with me, publicly will trash me, and refuse to sit down or address things about me that you don't like that I think are totally false, lies, proof, that will make me hate you.

I think, and this is going to take us back before we begin this, why are you a target for the media? I don't think it has to, it may now be exacerbated by the fact that you're here, literally here right now, or that you're on Varney or that you're on tuck. It may be exacerbated by these things, but to my mind, it predates them. You know, I saw it before, and it has something to do with control, I think. Like, Barstall represented a threat to sort of, and I don't always mean this, like there's a cabal of people that want to control what you say or control sports media, but all of a sudden, for so many people, it felt out of control. And you represented, you know, dudes, not politically correct, not playing by the rules.

And you represented, I think, in a way, a lot of loss of control. control and then you made you found yourself because of that on the approved attack list yeah i mean it's not a coincidence to keep happening you go back to this business insider but you want to talk about how deep things can go and for those who don't know business insider wrote two hit pieces vicious on me that both dropped at the time we're owned by penn entertainment publicly traded company and they both hit pieces dropped the day before earnings i mean yeah that That just doesn't happen unless there is a calculated plan of attack to disrupt, not only me, but people I do business with. This isn't just a thought piece to try to reveal an evil guy.

There's a lot of thought that went into whatever that is with players that I'll never understand fully who was involved. But two hit pieces that spent over a year and a half in the making drop hours before earnings. And the first one dropped it like 20%. I mean, that is not an accident. All right, two quick things on the way out. So pizza reviews, we talked about earlier. I know there was the thing with the guy who got mad at you and that went viral and that played into your hands.

Everything plays into your hands somehow. But I'm curious, is there anything, I would never have thought this. Some of my guys who produced the show with me told me this. Is there a thing like where some people think the pizza reviews are bad for business? I would think all publicity is good publicity, but like you give a six. is it really hurt the business? Is there a thing with some pizza shops out there not liking you? No, that's just that one dragon pizza idiot.

The pizza community loves me by and large. I mean, even a bad review, which I used to really get bad reviews, I don't for that very reason, no longer do. And, you know, people who don't like me will say anything. I've had people saying bad for small, that dragon pizza guy. They just don't know what they're talking about. He's like, you're bad for small business. It's like, buddy, I raise 50 million for small business.

business. I didn't do it so I could have that answer in my bag. But there's a lot of things you can say about me that you may be able to find articles true or false that corroborate it to say I'm bad for small business. It's like, how do you even respond to that? That's actually the last thing I want to talk to you about. I mean, man, what you did for small business is a thing that I don't know what you'll feel at the end of your career. Because, like, you know, we talked about your personality and, you know, if revivism, is a primary motivator. I don't know. Look, man, the older I get, whatever I personally accomplish, you know, ambitiously has less meaning. It's something about, and I talked about

this with The Rock last week. Like, you get something big, you do something big, and all of a sudden you realize you're unimpressed with yourself and what you accomplished. And then there's the things that really matter. Maui meant and does mean a lot to me. We raised money. We gave back. I have to imagine, Dave, like the gratitude that you received, but not just that, the good that you did with that small business fund. I mean, I don't know if you wanted to lead your obituary, but I would have to imagine it's got to be one of the things in this world that you're like, this is one of the reasons I'm here.

This is one of the reasons I'm on earth. Yeah, that has been a blessing, and I still run into people probably once a week who either were directly affected, know somebody. And it's certainly rewarding. At the same time, it was one of those things we didn't plan out. How could anyone plan it out? and the help we got from our readership.

So it's almost embarrassing. Yeah, we did it, but we were in the position to do it with our fan base. Yes. And, you know, it was something I'm very proud of. And I think it is an easy answer. If you look back, say, what's the thing you're most proud of in the 20 years you've been doing it? It's that because it wasn't just one people. It saved really a lot, a lot of people, a lot of businesses, employees.

families. And it made a difference and we see it every day still. So yeah, that means a lot. It really does. All right, man. Listen, I'm a fan. I hope you, I like you. I want you know, I like you, okay? I like you. Let's just keep it on that. No, but I'm a fan and I look forward to seeing what you do, where you take Barstool. To the moon, man. Thank you, Dave. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right. There goes, Dave Portnoy, El Presidente of Barstool Sports. Coming up, Somalia first or America first. The treason of Congresswoman Ilan Omar. Next on the Will Cain Show.

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lawmakers from opposite sides of the aisle, along with all your Brett Bear favorites like his All-Star panel and much more. Available now at Fox Newspodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Somalia first versus America first. It's the Will Cain Show streaming live at Fox News.com and Fox News YouTube channel. Always on demand. Will Cain Show on YouTube. Put that into your search function. Find old episodes or interviews of the Will Cain Show.

But also you can listen to it on podcast at Apple, Spotify, or at Fox News podcast. Go hit subscribe and that will show up directly into your feed. People who know they are Somalians first. Muslims second. Somewhere presumably after that priority comes America. That, according to Congresswoman from Minnesota, Ilan Omar. In a speech that she gave, not in English, she said, my answer to Somalians is that the U.S. government will only do what Somalians in the U.S. tell them to do, explaining how she represents the priority of Somalians through the prism of Somalians in America and using the apparatus of the United States government to effectuate the interests of Somalians.

How is that not treason? It seems to me that the primary interest of a politician is to literally represent America first. It's not just a political philosophy or a campaign slogan for Donald Trump. It should be a guiding philosophy for those elected to represent the American people. Unless we think this is something that is partisan in nature, I did not approve, and I said it on air, when Congressman Brian Mast of Florida, a veteran whose service is appreciated and whose loyalties are not questioned, but symbolically wore the military uniform of Israel, of the IDF, on the floor. of Congress. No, that is not America first. I don't want to see a foreign flagged waved on the floor of our capital. I don't want to see a foreign military uniform, regardless of that uniform, no matter who that is, certainly foe, but not even ally, on the floors of the United

States Congress, because I don't think it is, I find it so absurd, and I don't know if anything I'm saying could be taken into some controversial context. But it blows my mind. mind to think that there's anything controversial about your job as an elective representative is to represent the interests of America first. But we're in this wild moment where we're torn between two extremes painted as rational with the common sense middle, and I'm not talking about the normal milk toast moderate stuff, but the common sense moderate position of, hey, you know what? You know what? I think it's pretty good. The United States is somehow controversial.

On one end of the spectrum, you've got the globalist, the person that believes that humanity is one, there's no such thing as borders, and that we should invite anyone in from any part of the country, any part of the world for a better life, that we should attempt to engineer through the World Economic Forum or the United Nations a better world for everyone. And of course, that will require the compromise of some for the benefit of others. and the primary benefit will go to those who were in charge of that social engineering. That's the worldview of the globalist that it rejects America first. On the other end of the spectrum, we have, quite honestly, the new left, which the globalist is also the left, but this is ethnic tribalism. This is dividing us according to our skin, our ethnic community, and suggesting that's the way and the prism through which we should see the world.

represented best here by Elon Omar, Somalia first, Muslim second, I don't think she fully explained, where down the line comes American. And the common sense middle that's painted as controversial is to be a nationalist. Now that somehow that word carries, I don't know, I don't know what it carries. A negative connotation in some way? To believe in America that this is our tribe, that we as a people have set aside, our superficial, racial, and ethnic tribal differences and don't see ourselves in our common culture and our protection and attempt to create a better world

as one that necessarily includes, oh, say, Switzerland. That there's something unique and common about us here in this nation. And that we shouldn't go around jumbling our priorities. I mean, you know, I have friends. I'm like, you know, who do you root for in the Olympics? Who do you root for in the World Cup? I don't understand living in the United States and being an American citizen and saying Mexico or saying Israel.

I'm saying you can't root for those places of your, I don't know, familial heritage. But what about when they play America, the place that you live, the nation where, forget pay taxes, where you are capable of succeeding. I don't like it when Americans don't seem to understand the order of hierarchical priority, but I think it's treasonous when a politician says that they use the American government as a tool to answer the interests of a foreign country,

the full quote from Congresswoman Ilan Omar. My answer to Somalians was that the U.S. government will only do what Somalians in the United States tell them to do. They will do what we want and nothing else. They must follow our orders, and that is how we will safeguard the interests of Somalia. At a minimum, that is not America first. At a maximum, that is a philosophy that is inherently treasonous.

Coming up, a post-game film breakdown session of our interview with Dave Portnoy. with the boys here on the Will Cain Show. It is time to take the quiz. It's five questions in less than five minutes. We ask people on the streets of New York City to play along. Let's see how you do. Take the quiz every day at thequiz.com.

Then come back here to see how you did. Thank you for taking the quiz. Welcome back to the quiz. Will Kane Show streaming live on YouTube and at Fox News.com on demand, Will Kane Show on YouTube or on podcast at Apple Spotify or at Fox News podcast. Hit subscribe on any of those channels and hit the Will Kane Show straight into your feed. We just spent 40 minutes with the founder of Barstool Sports, Dave Portnoy. We talked about everything under the sun, his entrepreneurial adventure in creating barstool sports, some of the inner dynamics and drama today of Barstall Sports. What he thinks about Trump?

What he thinks about Biden? and his fight against the mainstream media, why he is a available target for everyone in the mainstream media. I want to bring in the crew, the boys, for this post-game film session. Two days, Dan and Young James, establishment James, back in New York, and Conspiracy Patrick in Florida. All right, boys, what did you think? Go ahead, Patrick.

I just really love Dave. I love everything about him. I think that, I mean, maybe he is a Southerner. I'm not quite, you know, we're way more passive-aggressive. I like the directness that he has. Are you a Southern? I love his entrepreneurial spirit. Yeah, is that, does that count?

Do what? I mean, I don't think of Jacksonville, Florida, as Alabama, one and the same. No, it's like South. It's like South Georgia. We're not like, Florida cuts off. at, like, Orlando. So, like, Dave's in a different Florida than I am. You're, like, the South Light.

Yeah, but I understand the panhandle is Southern. Like, you know, I get that area. I just never, I never met somebody from Jacksonville, but like, hey, Southerner. It's exactly the same. I mean, like, you look at Florida Gator fans, they wear jorts and, you know, have bullets. It's all the same thing.

It's all the same thing. Okay. No, what I took away from Dave, The thing he said about bar stools, being cool for 20 years is really hard. I mean, doing what they did and staying important and relevant that long is pretty crazy, especially because kids get older. I mean, they could be big with the younger kids, like the college kids, but those college kids get older and they're still listening and watching.

So it's really hard what they did. And, you know, it's just kind of interesting to see that. I really like how they churn talent out, you know. the S&L thing he was talking about, how he kind of envisioned them being a place where, you know, talent would eventually rise out like Chevy Chase and he would just bring more talent in and you just had to get them younger and, you know,

I could imagine how hard that is as like Dave Portnoy. I think about their tent polls. I'm going to forget. I'm going to forget, but I think about their tent polls and obviously Big Cat, PFT, Dave himself. and I'm sure I'm forgetting some others but you know like it's true they have begun to develop

new people like Caleb Presley and Jersey Jerry I mean that's a development of a talent pipeline which is pretty unique yeah and I mean like he's right Jenna Marbles was like one of the first big YouTubers you know Pat McAfee is a massive star right now and they all started at Barstool

so you know you got to I always kind of didn't give them the same credit for talent building in some ways. Like I thought, you know, you have your big cats and, you know, who else do you really have? But, you know, I would, I undersold them in some ways, so. I was interested in his answer on Trump and in politics, not just because, not because I'm political.

I actually thought the personality analysis of him and Trump be kind of similar was kind of interesting. Yes. Yeah, I know. I mean, they both, too, have kind of had a way where when they want something, they go after it and they just bluster their way through and through sheer force of will eventually gets to that point but there's also

a patience to it too and not backing down when you don't think it's going somewhere and he's gone a very different route than a lot of people in life and has done a lot better than 99.9% of people. And Nikki Haley guy. Yeah, that was

She's two establishment for me. I couldn't do that. If I had to guess Dave's answer, I would have guessed something like Vivek. I didn't picture Dave for establishment, Nikki, you know? I thought it was really funny. I mean, you boss, go ahead.

No, I thought it was really funny when you were asking about his looks getting better as he got older. I was like, is he going to take it this way? I don't, I don't think Dave BS is. I think he normally tells the truth. I don't, I don't, but I'm having trouble with that one. I think he gave a PG answer. You're telling me you don't work out.

You don't really pay attention to you. your diet, you just don't eat bad stuff anymore, and you just moderated your Adderall, and that's added up. No, the Adderall helped him lose weight, and he kept it off. There's got to be private chefs and trainers. I think he gave us a PG answer to why he lost weight, but we wouldn't say that. And he's a Florida guy. You're telling me there's no HGH in there.

I mean, he is tan, just like you will. Track the one bag at. That's all you have to do. Am I tan? One giant loaf of bread, and you can lose. A little sourdough. That's why they do... It's just one bite of pizza, that's why.

So he doesn't have to worry about it. European, moderates his intake. Oh, no, I appreciated that. I appreciated the introspection on also what kind of leader he is if he's willing to jump back into the breach and grind out what it is. It's a way different world. The barstool he's entered is very different

than the barstool who created. It's just, it's different to bring something from the bottom up than to jump up at the top and try to keep it there. or evolve it from there. But he's 100% right about their asset being that they're quick, they're nimble, because big corporations simply are not. ESPN never could be, never could be with them.

I love the conversation with Dave Portnoy. Go check it out. It's on demand. It'll be on YouTube. It's going to be on podcast, Apple, Spotify, or at Fox News Podcast. You can hear the whole 40-minute conversation. If you're interested in entrepreneurship, if you're interested in Barstall sports, if you're interested in politics, it's got it all in there.

if you're interested in the media. That's going to do it for us today here on the Will Kane show. Coming up tomorrow, a big extended episode of Will and Pete. I have my buddy Pete Hedgeseth here on the Will Kane show. with a Fox News podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcast, and Amazon Prime members, you can listen to this show ad-free on the Amazon music app. This is Jason Chaffetz from the Jason in the House podcast.

Join me every Monday to dive deeper into the latest political headlines and chat with remarkable guests. Listen and follow now at Fox Newspodcast.com. Or wherever you download podcasts.