Dave Portnoy: Jimmy Kimmel's 'free speech' rant was a joke. He mocked Charlie Kirk before his body was cold

Dave Portnoy has blasted Jimmy Kimmel for claiming he was the victim of an attack on free speech, insisting he was rightly punished for mocking Charlie Kirk 'before his body was even cold'.

Kimmel returned to host his late night ABC talk show on Tuesday after being briefly suspended by the network over his controversial remarks about the MAGA influencer's assassination in Utah earlier this month.

Before getting the show underway, the TV presenter gave a tearful 20-minute monologue in which he claimed he 'never intended to make light of' Kirk's death, before hitting out at Donald Trump for threatening to 'silence' him.

Kimmel, who did not directly apologize for his comments about Kirk, acknowledged that his employer Disney, which owns ABC, was taking a huge risk in reinstating him.

'Unfortunately, and I think unjustly, this puts them at risk,' he said. 'The president of the United States made it very clear he wants to see me and the hundreds of people who work here fired from their job. Our leader celebrates Americans losing their livelihoods because he can't take a joke.' 

Yet following his rant on Tuesday night, Portnoy branded Kimmel a 'joke' for justifying his remarks about Kirk as free speech, instead stressing that he deserved to be taken off air.

'Here is my last point on Kimmel. If Kimmel came on and apologized like this the day after his remarks he probably wouldn’t have been suspended. But by all accounts he wanted to double down,' the Barstool Sports founder and president wrote on X.

'Again for the billionth time this isn’t a free speech issue. He works for Mickey Mouse on NETWORK TV. Nobody said he was going to jail. He was dealing with the consequences of making off color jokes about the murder of a guy who meant a ton to a ton of people and blamed it on the very people who love him the most before the body was even cold.

'So yeah there was outrage that Mickey had to deal with. Then the pendulum swung the other way and they put him back on air. Either way it was never a free speech issue. When you work for somebody else and you offend a ton of people you deal with the consequences. Him framing this as free speech is a joke.'

Kimmel broke down in tears when discussing what he said about the assassination of Kirk, despite not once saying sorry for the offense he caused.

The 57-year-old said during his monologue on Monday September 15 that the 'MAGA gang' was trying to gain political points over Kirk's murder, while also falsely insinuating that the shooter, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was conservative - despite investigators stating he has far-left ideologies and was in a romantic relationship with his transgender roommate.

'I have no illusions about changing anyone's mind, but I do want to make something clear, because it's important to me as a human and that is, you understand that it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man,' Kimmel said on his return to ABC.

'I don't think there's anything funny about it.' 

Kimmel's tearful speech wasn't enough to silence conservative critics who vented their fury that he was allowed to return at all, including Trump.

The president led the outrage before the show even began, threatening to sue ABC and questioning why 'ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back.'

He wrote on Truth Social: 'The White House was told by ABC that his Show was cancelled! Something happened between then and now because his audience is GONE, and his "talent" was never there.

'Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, who's not funny, and who puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE. He is yet another arm of the DNC and, to the best of my knowledge, that would be a major Illegal Campaign Contribution.'

'Not good enough,' Kirk's former co-host, Andrew Kolvet, also wrote on X. 

'Jimmy, it's simple. Here's what you need to say: 'I'm sorry for saying the shooter was MAGA. He was not. He was of the left. I apologize to the Kirk family for lying. Please accept my sincere apology. I will do better. I was wrong.' 

But Hollywood in particular rallied behind Kimmel. Ben Stiller described his opening spiel as a 'brilliant monologue', while Pod Save America host Jon Favreau called it 'outstanding' and suggested viewers tune in 'especially if you don't like Kimmel.'

'This from Kimmel is the best apology I've ever seen,' added Keith Olbermann, who himself had to apologize for threatening CNN's Scott Jennings earlier on Tuesday.