Dave Portnoy Says He Turned Down Trump Interview Requests ‘Multiple Times’

Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy said he turned down requests to interview President Donald Trump “multiple times” while Trump was a candidate.

Speaking to PBS News’ Amna Nawaz for a Tuesday episode of Settle In with PBS News, Portnoy recalled why he agreed to speak with Trump in the Rose Garden in July 2020:

AMNA NAWAZ: It’s interesting to me to hear you describe what you do as a comedy web site and pure jokes and comedy because you do a lot of stuff, you do culture, you do sports, you do news and politics ends up being a part of that.

DAVID PORTNOY: Yep.

NAWAZ: So you did host Donald Trump in an interview back in 2020 right, and you’ve disclosed you voted for him in the past you voted for him in the most recent election too. why host a presidential candidate for a comedy web site? Why did you think that was a good move?

PORTNOY: Well he wasn’t a candidate he was the sitting president of the united states so, to me, to get asked to interview the sitting president was something that I couldn’t turn down. I mean I was stunned that they did it. They then asked me —

NAWAZ: They came to you?

PORTNOY: They came to me, yeah. I think they asked me on a Wednesday and they were like ‘Donald Trump wants you to come to the Rose Garden and do it.’ He had never done anything remotely similar with like a blog. He did a lot in the election following which they asked us during the campaign to interview him, which we did not, which I declined, multiple times. So the sitting president? it was a huge honor. and it would have been any president, that I would have been like, ‘Oh my God I have to do this.’

NAWAZ: Why do you think they came to you?

PORTNOY: Well for sure they want our audience. He lost that election so I’m sure they were reading the tea leaves and they wanted access to our crowd, I’m sure.”

Watch above via YouTube.

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