The drama surrounding the antisemitic incident that occurred at a Philadelphia sports bar owned by Dave Portnoy over the weekend just took another turn with one of the alleged perpetrators now portraying himself as the victim.
On Wednesday’s show, Megyn was joined by by Chamath Palihapitiya and Jason Calacanis, hosts of the All-In Podcast, to discuss the wild developments in the story and the sad truths it reveals about society today.
The Incident
In case you haven’t been following, the @StopAntisemitism X account reposted an Instagram Story clip taken at the Barstool Sansom Street bar in Philly Saturday night showing a sign that read “F-ck the Jews.” Portnoy, who is Jewish, was tagged in the post and wasted no time expressing his disgust and launching an investigation into what happened.
As it turns out, patrons who order bottle service at Barstool bars get to create a sign for the whole establishment to see. This group chose the slur, and the employees serving them apparently did not bat an eye.
On Sunday, Portnoy took to social media to explain he fired the two staffers who allowed the message and to share that he had offered to send the two customers responsible for the sign on an all-expenses-paid trip to the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz in hopes they would learn something from the experience. He said the duo had accepted his offer, and the gross incident appeared to be resolved in a positive way.
The Rebuttal
That all changed, however, late Tuesday when the person who first shared the video that @StopAntisemitism reposted came forward to claim he is actually a victim. Mo Khan, a 21-year-old Temple University student, now says he was not responsible for the sign and merely videotaped and posted it own social media as a “citizen journalist.”
He posted his ‘defense’ on X and accused Portnoy of “sensationalizing” the situation and “turning it into a global news story.” He maintained he was not part of creating the sign – something Portnoy continues to dispute – and instead thought it was “provocative” because “it reminded people a lot of the injust [sic] things that Israel is doing around the world.”
Kahn said that while “Portnoy and his friends can choose to be triggered over the sentiments of that sign and even kick me out of the establishment forever,” they cannot “destroy my life over free speech and ultimately something that was an edgy joke.”
“They’re more worried about destroying and uprooting me than the thousands of people getting destroyed and uprooted in genocide,” Kahn continued. “That sign had no effects in terms of killing any Jews, however, Israel kills thousands of people on a daily basis.”
He accused Portnoy and “the greater Jewish community” of “acting as if they are the victims, when this whole time I am the victim.” Kahn claimed this is an example of “cancel culture” run amok and said the Barstool Sports founder owes him “restitution and an apology for everything that he has done and caused for me in these past few days.”
To that point, Kahn is trying to raise money to “help defend me against Dave Portnoy attacks” on GiveSendGo. So far, he has raised over $13,000 towards his $25,000 goal. Portnoy responded on X by revoking the invitation for the trip to Auschwitz and blasting Khan for trying to profit off the incident.
The Double Down
But the story doesn’t end there. As part of his fundraising efforts, Khan made an appearance on alt-right podcaster Stew Peters’ show. After Kahn said Portnoy is “not a good guy” and accused him of “utterly destroying” his life, Peters had this to say:
“No, he’s not a good guy. He’s a filthy Jew… It is really about just defending what’s right. It is about, like, humanity. And, yes, Americans, largely, they are a bunch of cucks. They’re a bunch of Sims… This has everything to do with good versus evil. This has everything to do with humanity against demons. That’s what I see when I look at these ‘F-ck the Jews’ signs, and I look at everybody putting their fists in the air and drinking to that sh-t, saying, ‘Hell f-ck yeah. F-ck the Jews.’ That’s what I see. I see humanity coming together… I mean, let’s be real… We need to start standing up as humanity against these Jews.”
Megyn noted that Kahn did not seem offended by Peters’ vile assessment. Instead, he reiterated that he will not “put up the white flag” and surrender by going to Auschwitz. “I’m not doing that,” he said.
What It Says
Megyn dismissed Kahn’s “cancel culture” allegation, saying he assumed the risk of blowback when he chose to post a video of the sign on his Instagram without comment. But she said the entire ordeal raises larger points.
The “rush to victimhood,” she said, is all too common in young adults today. “Instead of accepting personal responsibility, accepting an olive branch from somebody… [who] offered to send you some place where you might enlarge your world view, you turn on him… start a fundraiser for yourself, and play the victim when your university suspends you,” Megyn explained. “You didn’t say, ‘F-ck Israel’… You said ‘F-ck the Jews,’ which is basically the same thing as saying ‘F-ck the N-words.’ That is what you did, and there will be blowback in modern-day society for that, thankfully.”
As Calacanis noted, Kahn had an “easy out” after Portnoy offered him the trip but instead he was “dumb” and doubled down. “You have Kanye West… going off on Jewish people. You’ve got this idiot, and they are not parsing the issue in an intelligent way and saying, ‘Hey, here’s what I disagree about how Israel and the Palestinian conflict is going on,'” he said. “This is just antisemitism, and it is dangerous.
While he said he would rather see Kahn “educated” than canceled, Megyn wasn’t sure if one is possible without the other at this point. “This kid is not going to be educated until he suffers some pain,” she said. “He got a ‘get out of jail for a stupid thing’ card… and he didn’t take it. He basically thumbed his middle finger at the offer.”
In Palihapitiya’s view, Kahn revealed who he is in rejecting Portnoy’s offer. “This kid is, at a minimum, extremely stupid… Could he smarten up over time? Probably. But if he wasn’t lying about being a journalist, he exposed himself when he decided to not go to Auschwitz,” he explained. “That is what a journalist would do… actually go and explore the issue, get to the bottom of it, and then change what he thought, or… double down on what he thought. But none of that is happening.”
He agreed with Megyn that the incident and subsequent fallout offer a window into what it plaguing younger generations. “We have had a generation of kids who have been basically over-medicated, over-prescribed, over-parented by a cohort of people who have increasingly felt that they themselves are also over-prescribed, over-medicated,” Palihapitiya said. “And all of this toxic soup has resulted in a generation of people that are deeply unresilient and… very superficial. They can’t think through the consequences because they have never felt the pain of touching the stove.”
“The question is: How many other Mo Kahn’s are out there that will see this thing and decide to educate themselves on the issue… at a minimum… the difference between what it means to be Jewish, versus what it means to be an Israeli citizen, versus what it means to be the Israeli government and your responsibility as a as a governing body over a populous of people in a sovereign country, versus what does it mean to be a Palestinian, versus what is it to mean to be a Hamas terrorist,” he continued. “If none of that nuance is taught to people or people have the curiosity to decide the ambiguity and the nuances of this, we are going to just be stuck in this morass.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Calacanis and Palihapitiya by tuning in to episode 1,067 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.