Dave Portnoy Delivers Provocative Response to Jimmy Kimmel's Suspension

Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy shared his response to Jimmy Kimmel being suspended over his comments about Charlie Kirk's killer. Jimmy was suspended by ABC on Sept. 17, 2025, over jokes he made during his monologue a few days prior. In his monologue, Jimmy said that "MAGA" is desperate to say that Charlie's killer is anything but one of them.

Charlie was fatally shot in Orem, Utah, on Sept. 10, while speaking at Utah State University about gun violence.

Many people are facing backlash for their social media comments about Kirk's death. Tucker Carlson even accused the Trump Administration of using his death to "bring hate speech laws to this country," per The Independent.

Dave decided to share his two cents on X, as well as on Instagram, and he gave a provocative response to the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live!. His response on X has received nearly 20 million views so far.

Dave took to X on Sept. 18 to share his opinion on Jimmy being suspended by ABC, and he defended the network's decision.

"With Kimmel getting canned, I’m seeing lots of people talking about the hypocrisy of cancel culture," he wrote. "To me Cancel culture is when people go out of their way to dig up old tweets, videos, etc., looking for dirt on somebody they don’t like in an effort to get them fired. Like, if Kimmel got canceled for s--t he did on The Man Show, that would be cancel culture."

Incidentally, The Man Show is a comedy show, and Jimmy is a comedian on a late-night talk show.

"But, when a person says something that a ton of people find offensive, rude, dumb in real time, and then that person is punished for it, that’s not cancel culture," he added. "That is consequences for your actions."

Dave — who is reportedly a Trump supporter — also shared his opinion on Instagram, with a video.

The post was captioned, "Here is my take on the Kimmel suspension. I think I may be in the minority here but this isn’t a free speech or cancel culture issue for me. This is simply a case of the juice not being worth the squeeze for an employer, with an employee causing major headaches with year over year declining ratings in a world where late night tv is being phased out."

The video featured Dave saying the same thing he said on X, calling the suspension "consequences for your actions" in real time rather than oppressing free speech. "Sinclair Communications was like, 'This is garbage.'"

X users reacted to Dave's response, and some did not agree with his take, while others did.

"Your take is misplaced. He got fired for criticizing the President," replied one user, prompting another to disagree. "No, he didn't, he's been doing that for years. He got fired for what he said about Charlie Kirk and the shooter."

On Instagram, one user wrote, "You love being a beacon of free speech until it’s something you don’t agree with."

The alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, is the son of two Republicans, and Jimmy challenged Trump and his followers for claiming he was a liberal.

The comments Jimmy was ousted for were: "The MAGA gang's desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them," he said, per NPR. He continued, "And doing everything they can to score political points from it.”

He also joked about Trump responding to a reporter's question about Charlie's murder by bragging about White House renovations.