Barstool Sports accidentally waded into the contentious world of politics on Friday afternoon, and it didn’t go well. Someone on the social media team decided to tweet out a video depicting President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden as characters in The Avengers. The clip was met with instant backlash – prompting an almost immediate deletion of the tweet.
This was the video in question:
America Assembled!🇺🇸🎉@JoeBiden @KamalaHarris @BarackObama @ChrisEvans @MarkRuffalo @RobertDowneyJr @brielarson @AOC @staceyabrams @michaelb4jordan @Russo_Brothers #Election2020 #ElectionResults2020 #joebiden #DonaldTrump #BidenHarris2020 #avengers #endgame pic.twitter.com/cDl1VsFbOo
— John Handem Piette (@JohnHPiette) November 6, 2020
Eagle-eyed Twitter observers noticed both the tweet and the subsequent removal instantly.
Never forget pic.twitter.com/Ulzal1OIPO
— j. (@GhostX96) November 6, 2020
— Evan Sargent (TRIPL DIGITZ) (@TRIPL_DIGITZ) November 6, 2020
They deleted that shit real quick
— Krombopulos Michael (@concorrection) November 6, 2020
You really bailed on that avengers video like cowards, huh.
— chase (@daspacechase) November 6, 2020
Y’all deleted that avengers video real quick
— Krombopulos Michael (@concorrection) November 6, 2020
we saw that deleted train wreck avengers donald trump tweet
— la bamba (@bubblegumandick) November 6, 2020
You gonna repost that Avengers clip?
— Steven Hudson (@StevenHut) November 6, 2020
RIP Avengers video
— DaCoach8564 (@DaBears1029) November 6, 2020
To bad y’all got it backwards biden is thanos. avengers is not a banana republic
— Brett (@BigtimeCane) November 6, 2020
Barstool boss Dave Portnoy generally makes it a point to stand by whatever he posts, so it was likely someone else who made the decision to publish this tweet and promptly delete it. That said, it is still a weird look all the way around, even for a media company that prefers to stay largely apolitical.
Over the past year Barstool has somehow faced accusations of being both expressly liberal and conservative, which is generally an indication that they’re really teetering somewhere in the middle. Many of the younger staff members come off as very liberal, while the senior members walk the tight rope between political parties. Portnoy, for example, seems to lean more to the right — though that may just be a product of the times and what we consider “the right” nowadays. Dan ‘Big Cat’ Katz, Barstool’s second biggest star, leans more to the left.
So that’s how she motivates Gronk. https://t.co/84SK9ScUhu
— Game 7 (@game7__) November 3, 2020
The issue here is probably less so the video itself, which people will like or dislike based on their political affiliations, and more so the endorsement that whoever was handling social media ultimately gave it. That’s also why the video ended up receiving the backlash that it got right up until it got deleted.
One way or another, it will be interesting to see if Portnoy addresses this matter. Everything from the political nature of the content to the way it was deleted over backlash is representative of things he has historically disliked, so his reaction to the entire situation will be telling of how Barstool will handle similar situations in the future.
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A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
