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AOC Butts into Dispute that Has Nothing To Do with Her, Gets Debate Challenge from Sports Media Mogul Dave Portnoy

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Democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York seems to have no problem going toe-to-toe with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but she might have bitten off more than she can chew by picking a fight with Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy and his army of supporters.

Portnoy caught the attention of Ocasio-Cortez with his response to news that employees of The Ringer, a sports website founded by Bill Simmons, have decided to form a union.

Portnoy tweeted out a “little refresher” about his stance on unions, which linked to a blog post from 2015 where he reacted to Gawker writers voting to unionize. (Gawker went defunct barely a year later.)

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“BAHAHA! I hope and I pray that Barstool employees try to unionize,” the clearly comical post reads.

“I can’t tell you how much I want them to unionize. Just so I can smash their little union to smithereens,” he added.

“Nothing would please me more than to break it into a million little pieces. Oh you think you deserve health insurance? You don’t think you should have to work with squirrels in the office? You don’t think I should duct tape Hank to the walls? Well now yis can’t leave! No more free water! No more vacation days!”

As is often the case, Portnoy quickly came under attack from an outrage mob that has no idea who he is and what he does.

A writer for Live Science tweeted a message imploring Barstool employees to contact him about how to unionize.

Portnoy responded, writing that he would “fire” any employees who contacted the Live Science writer “on the spot.”

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That’s when Ocasio-Cortez, despite being more likely to have visited MyBarstools.com at least once in her life than BarstoolSports.com, decided to get involved.

Her complete ignorance when it came to Barstool Sports caused her to be blind to the fact that she was setting up a dream scenario for the savvy Portnoy. Sensing a golden content opportunity, he quickly fired back a challenge to the freshman congresswoman.

“Hey @aoc welcome to thunder dome,” Portnoy tweeted. “Debate me.”

Ocasio-Cortez ignored the challenge and offered one more tweet on the topic of unions.

Still, Portnoy already had what he needed. Barstool employees came out to defend him in droves, and he got to work milking the controversy for all the content it was worth.

A group of employees mocked the union hysteria with a (considerably vulgar, be warned) parody video that was posted to Bartsool website.

One employee defended the company by touting its health insurance plan.

Another took issue with the aggressive nature of many union advocates.

And, because this story needed yet another unexpected character, Donald Trump Jr. took a shot at Ocasio-Cortez in defense of Barstool.

Barstool is now selling Dave Portnoy “Union Buster” T-shirts for $28, which can’t be what Ocasio-Cortez had in mind when she spoke out.

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Jake Harp has been with The Western Journal since 2014. His writing primarily focuses on sports and their intersection with politics, culture, and religion.
Jake Harp joined Liftable Media in 2014 after graduating from Grove City College. Since then he has worked in several roles, mostly focusing on social media and story assignment. Jake lives in Western New York where, in a shocking display of poor parenting, he tries to pass down his Buffalo sports fandom to his daughter.
Location
New York
Topics of Expertise
Sports, Politics




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