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Dave Portnoy has hit back at the 'scumbag' intern that claimed they were fired from Barstool for posting a message to Charlie Kirk's family.
Shortly after Kirk's shocking death, a user on X came forward and claimed they had been running Barstool Texas Tech's account at the time, before being fired days later.
The user claimed that he'd sent out a post calling for 'prayers' to the family of Kirk, in the wake of the news, before being dismissed by Barstool for doing so.
Taking to social media, the user - named 'TortillaSniper' - wrote: 'Running Barstool TTU was a dream of mine.
'I was proud to represent Texas Tech and be part of what I thought was a brand that stood for being real, unfiltered, and different. But after what just happened, I'm disgusted I was ever involved with this company.
'On September 10th, Charlie Kirk was murdered. A husband and father of two young kids had his life taken. I made a simple post offering prayers for his family. No politics. No agenda. Just basic human decency.
Dave Portnoy has hit back at a former intern who claimed they were fired for posting a tribute message to the family of Charlie Kirk
Kirk, a close ally of Trump, was fatally shot at a Q&A event at Utah Valley University last week
The intern took to social media to share a statement and, in turn, call out Portnoy and Barstool
'Barstool's response? I was yelled at, locked out of the accounts, and tossed aside without warning. Their excuse? 'We don't talk about politics.' That's a joke.
'Barstool talks politics whenever it benefits them they pick and choose their moments. But apparently, praying for a grieving family is where they draw the line.
'Dave Portnoy and Barstool love to pretend they're rebels, that they're uncensored, that they're different. The truth? They're hypocrites. Weak.
'A fraud of a company that silences its own people for showing humanity. They'll exploit tragedy when it gets clicks, but fire someone for showing empathy'.
After the user's post went viral, many fans called for a response from Barstool boss Portnoy. And it didn't take long for him to fire back.
Taking to X, he wrote: 'I hate this kid. He was an intern in a program of 200 interns. We have pretty hard and fast rules not to do politics or personal opinions on those accounts. This was in place before any of this.
'If you run a brand account for any company you don't do personal stuff from the brand. It's day 1 stuff. We don't want 200 teenage interns giving their takes on the world. Every single account followed the rules.
'He was the only 1 that didn't and then he also started fighting with people in comments calling them a**holes . It had nothing to do with what he said and just how we run a massive intern program.
'To be honest I didn’t even know it happened till I saw this kid call me a fraud. Maybe if he reached out to me first instead of going wacko I coulda helped. So I have no sympathy for him. He’s trying to use this to build his career. Scumbag move to be honest'.
The user shared a lengthy statement in which he labelled Barstool a 'fraud of a company'
Portnoy swiftly fired back and insisted that the user in question failed to 'follow the rules'
Other users on X appeared to agree with Portnoy as they weighed in on the situation
Shortly after, screenshots of the alleged group chat for the Barstool Texas Tech interns was leaked on social media and appeared to show the intern apologizing for posting the message on official Barstool accounts.
While some fans agreed with the intern, other's struggled to see their perspective. In response, one account wrote: 'You posted it from an official Barstool account. Everyone else did it from their personal account. You don’t understand the difference?'.
Portnoy sparked backlash last week, in the wake of Kirk's shocking death, after he claimed the divisiveness of Donald Trump played a huge role in the tragedy.
'When I say Trump has a huge part in it, I don't necessarily mean he's to blame for it, but he's so divisive... [even just] his face is divisive. People hate him so much,' Portnoy said.
'And the left and the right, the rhetoric - especially to me the left, is insane - and it just boils, boils, boils, boils.
'This happened with Trump, when his assassination attempt [happened] there was like a three-hour period of "let's tone down the rhetoric", and then they're right back to it.'
He then added: 'If you sit there and you call people Nazis over and over and over, and say that they're threatening Democracy and they're fascist over and over... you can't then be like, "What happened?"
'That goes together, because if you truly think you're killing a Nazi, or you truly think you're killing a fascist, in your head you're thinking "I did good for society."'
The Barstool Sports chief was speaking in the wake of the assassination of Charlie Kirk in Utah
Kirk, a married father of two, was hit by a single bullet while speaking to a crowd at the public university in Orem. He collapsed immediately after and was rushed to hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.
Kirk, a conservative activist and close ally of Trump, was shot and killed while hosting a Q&A event with students at Utah Valley University last Wednesday.
Kirk's death sparked controversy in America after a number of the right-wing commentator's critics appeared to celebrate his death on Wednesday.
NFL franchise the Carolina Panthers have fired a junior employee after he disgustingly mocked the assassination on Instagram, with several left-wing social media fanatics also saying Kirk 'deserved' to be shot.
