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Barstool Sports owner Dave Portnoy had an answer Monday for whether he is weighing a potential mayoral run in the Big Apple: “Maybe.”
Speaking with Fox News Digital following a 92NY event promoting his new book, the New England native debated whether he’d be the best candidate to take on New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whose socialist brand is rising in the Democratic Party.
“Depends what day you ask me,” Portnoy told Fox News Digital. “I don’t know that I could win, but somebody’s got to take that guy and beat him.”
“So I don’t know,” he added. “Maybe I’m the guy to do it. Depends on how much more he keeps pissing me off.”
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The comments came following a panel promoting Portnoy’s new book, “Cancel Me If You Can,” in which the Barstool founder left no stone unturned when it came to topics of discussion — including touching on the recent sweep by three far-left socialists in New York City’s primary elections last week.
“I don’t want to say, ‘We don’t do politics,’ and then I jump into politics,” Portnoy said during the panel, in response to a question submitted by Fox News Digital. “And I can’t stay out of it, because it is blowing in my mind what’s going on [in New York City] right now.”
Portnoy went on to blast previous comments from Mamdani-backed candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier that have resurfaced in light of her primary win.
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“That lady, Chevalier, just got elected,” Portnoy said. “The things she has said are unbelievable.”
“She said all Arab men [and] Black men shouldn’t date ugly colonizers,” he continued. “She said no prisons, no quarters, no jails. She started a group at Columbia that’s goal was to overthrow Western society — she just got elected.”
Although Chevalier has not been elected to office, her victory is effectively a certainty in her deep-blue district after winning the Democratic nomination.
He also pointed to resurfaced remarks made by Mamdani-backed Aber Kawas, who won her primary race in New York State Senate District 12, in which she appeared to suggest the United States deserved the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.
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“[Kawas], who just got elected, said America deserved 9/11,” Portnoy said. “Like that to me, is just — I can’t even wrap my brain around it.”
“I don’t know if it’s scary or if I should be scared or like, [if] I gotta get into politics,” he added. “I am stunned by some of the things that are happening now.”
Kawas’ previous comments stemmed from a 2017 episode of the Asian American Writers’ Association podcast titled “Islamophobia beyond 9/11 with Aber Kawas,” in which she said, “The system of capitalism and racism and White supremacy… and Islamophobia have all been used to colonize lands, to take resources from other people and so this is a long trajectory, and we’re just seeing the manifestations of that continuation with 9/11.”
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The socialist candidate later walked back her comments days after her win, telling Fox News Digital, “I’ve always been outspoken about the wrongful scapegoating of Muslim Americans, both before and after 9/11, and in this interview I was speaking about the harmful notion that Muslims should have to apologize for an act of violence they have nothing to do with.”
The pizza critic known as “El Presidente” took aim at Mamdani, blasting the sitting mayor’s socialist agenda while refusing to confirm whether a mayoral run was off the table.
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“I’d want to go right for Mamdani,” Portnoy told the audience at 92NY, in response to Fox News Digital’s question.
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“Unlike Mamdani, who’s never had a job, I’ve had a real job,” he added. “And I’ve actually done a lot of good when I wasn’t doing it to run for office. I’m doing it because it’s the right thing to do.”
“I don’t know if I could win this city with a Democrat, but [Mamdani] has said what he wanted to do before he got elected. And I trust what people say before they’re running, and he said some pretty crazy things about what he wants to do.”
Portnoy lamented that he believes entrepreneurship — a fundamental principle of the American Dream — has been demonized by far-left candidates throughout Democratic cities in the country.
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“To me, I think Barstool is the American Dream. I really do,” Portnoy said. “It’s like, you work your a– off, you build a company, you employ 400 to 450 people who enjoy it. I’ve become wealthy beyond my reach. It kind of is the American Dream.”
“I don’t like when I hear that people should be ashamed for being successful — that bothers me greatly,” the Barstool founder continued, earning a round of applause. “A lot of things [Mamdani] says really do bother me.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to Mamdani’s office for comment.
Speaking to the audience in response to Fox News Digital’s question, Portnoy paraphrased a famous line from philosopher Plato to emphasize his belief that Americans should run for office if they are unhappy with the politicians elected to represent them.
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“If you don’t do your job in public service, then you’re doomed to be ruled by people dumber than you,” Portnoy said.
Fox News Digital’s Peter D’Abrosca contributed to this report.
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