Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy said he would “be in jail” if he had made sexist comments about Nikki Haley like those uttered by “f–king idiot” Don Lemon.
Portnoy, who has been accused by several women of sexual misconduct, bashed Lemon after the “CNN This Morning” co-host said the 51-year-old Haley was “not in her prime.”
“If I said today what @donlemon just said I’d be in jail,” tweeted Portnoy, who has denied misconduct allegations made by women in his past.
“What a f–king idiot,” Portnoy wrote of Lemon.
In November 2021, Insider quoted a number of young women who said they were subjected to violence and humiliation during sexual encounters with Portnoy.
At least three women alleged that Portnoy filmed their sexual encounters without their permission, according to Insider. One of the women claimed he broke one of her ribs during one particular tryst that was filmed.
Portnoy has denied the allegations and filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing the news site of defamation, but a judge dismissed the suit in November.
Even before Insider’s 2021 report, Portnoy’s sports-centered brand Barstool has been criticized for perpetuating misogynistic stereotypes about women.
Portnoy himself was once quoted as saying that ESPN personality Sam Ponder was a “f–king slut” whose job was to “make men hard.”
Lemon was noticeably absent from the co-host chair Friday morning but issued a groveling apology to network staffers during a call.
“The people I am closest to in this organization are women,” Lemon insisted, according to a transcript of his mea culpa obtained by The Post. “The people I seek counsel to first in this organization are women. The person I am closest to is my mother, a woman.”
Kaitlan Collins briefly alluded to the fact that the former primetime star was “off” for the day. Audie Cornish, the journalist and former National Public Radio host, filled in for Lemon.
Harlow, the show’s other co-host, beamed in to the studio from Salt Lake City, where she is covering the NBA All-Star weekend festivities.
She had walked off the set in rage on Thursday after his sexist remarks about Haley, sources told The Post.
Lemon on Thursday posted a tweet expressing “regret” over his “inartful” comments.
Follow The Post’s coverage of CNN’s Don Lemon
“The reference I made to a woman’s ‘prime’ this morning was inartful and irrelevant, as colleagues and loved ones have pointed out, and I regret it,” Lemon tweeted on Thursday.
“A woman’s age doesn’t define her either personally or professionally. I have countless women in my life who prove that every day.”
But Lemon’s explanation failed to quell the anger from many on Twitter who felt he should have offered up a more explicit apology to Haley.
“Way more than inartful or irrelevant,” tweeted former Democratic Party presidential candidate and self-help author Marianne Williamson.
“Lol. Did you google this response?” remarked Fox News weather forecaster Janice Dean.
“Not inartful. Sexist and ageist. Call it what it is,” tweeted gun control activist Shannon Watts.
Lemon did get some sympathy from basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who tweeted that he thought his “heart was in the right place.”
“I think you were referencing women being in their prime during their ‘reproductive years,'” Abdul-Jabbar, the former Lakers great, tweeted at Lemon.
“Women are always in their ‘prime’ because in my opinion, they get stronger, more courageous and more beautiful as they get older,” the NBA Hall of Famer tweeted.
Megyn Kelly, the former Fox News star who currently hosts a daily podcast on SiriusXM, was having none of Abdul-Jabbar’s comments.
“Look at this guy — constantly lectures us on how morally superior he is — but 100% ok with Don Lemon’s misogyny,” Kelly tweeted on Friday.
“There is NO context in which this comment is okay. Stop defending it. Pathetic.”