ESPN's Mina Kimes Responds To OutKick After Mocking Michele Tafoya, Who Called Out Her Walz Comments

Is there a single ESPN analyst who has a pair of brain cells? Asking for a friend.

Michele Tafoya and Mina Kimes are the two latest media personalities to engage in a rather visible war of words on X, and it all started with some comments Kimes made on masculinity.

Earlier this week, Kimes (who works for ESPN) went on the "Pablo Torres Finds Out" podcast and praised Minnesota governor and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz for displaying "a different kind of masculinity." What she meant by that was a far more emasculated version of manhood, which evidently winds her clock.

"There's something, to me, really important about seeing someone like this modeling a different kind of masculinity," Kimes said of Walz on the podcast. "We're kind of seeing it in the NFL with the Kelces, and Dan Campbell — this idea that 'big, tough football guy' isn't separate from showing emotion and empathy. This man, the year he was a football coach, led the gay–straight alliance at the high school. That's really powerful in a way that goes far beyond politics." 

Translated: she’s all for effeminate men with no backbone. Can’t say that I’m surprised to see an ESPN "analyst" say that.

What’s most interesting about her comment is that she clearly advocated for a political candidate, but has yet to face any punishment from the network for doing so. However, Sage Steele parted ways with ESPN in part for "breaching" the company’s "ban on politics," because she offered conservative viewpoints on several cultural issues.

OutKick’s Bobby Burack wrote about how this shows ESPN’s clear political bias, and Tafoya quote-tweeted this story to offer her response to Kimes’ take.

Kimes saw this tweet and responded in kind, with a GIF of LeBron James (himself a model of masculinity gone frequently wrong) that implied she didn’t take Tafoya’s response seriously.

If this doesn’t further highlight Kimes’ poor character, I don’t know what does. Not only is she all for emasculating men even at a young age, she arrogantly mocks those who would point out her stupidity.

Standard ESPN analyst behavior.

We have reached out to Kimes to ask for more insight on her response. We will update the story if she responds (don't count on it).

UPDATE: Kimes did end up responding, but not to my question. Instead, she accused me of lying about her and incurring racism on her and her family. I've never lied about her, and she provided no proof of her accusations, but this is what she said:

"Hi John - I don't have a comment for you, but I do hope you know that your horrible lies about me have led to racism and harassment towards me and my family for quite some time now. Please don't ever text me again."

Didn't think I'd get falsely accused by a liberal today, but I'm somewhat enjoying it.