ESPN’s Mina Kimes calls critics ‘grifters’

ESPN reporter Mina Kimes told critics to stop telling her how to do her job following backlash over her defense of a government webpage dedicated to Jackie Robinson.

The 39-year-old, along with fellow ESPN reporter Jeff Passan, took grave issue with the Department of Defense removing a webpage dedicated to the baseball legend’s military service as part of their anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative. Despite the page’s origins dating back to just 2021, the reporter went on a full offensive to get the story republished.

Passan started with a complaint late Tuesday about the page’s removal, calling government officials “ghouls” before he demanded they “fix this now.”

On Wednesday afternoon, Passan published a response he received from Pentagon press secretary John Ullyot on the issue:

“As Secretary Hegseth has said, DEI is dead at the Defense Department,” the Pentagon official explained. “Discriminatory Equity Ideology is a form of Woke cultural Marxism that has no place in our military. It Divides the force, Erodes unit cohesion and Interferes with the services’ core warfighting mission. We are pleased by the rapid compliance across the Department with the directive removing DEI content from all platforms. In the rare cases that content is removed — either deliberately or by mistake — that is out of the clearly outlined scope of the directive, we instruct the components and they correct the content accordingly.”

Less than 30 minutes later, Passan posted an updated statement from the government entity that said the DOD “loves Jackie Robinson, as well as the Navajo Code Talkers, the Tuskegee airmen, the Marines at Iwo Jima and so many others.”

The department still stood with its anti-DEI message, however, and said it saluted the heroes for their “heroic service” but did not view their achievements “through the prism of immutable characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, or sex.”

“We do so only by recognizing their patriotism and dedication to the warfighting mission like ever (sic) other American who has worn the uniform,” the department added.

However, it took less than 40 minutes after the DOD’s first statement was posted for the agency to restore the Jackie Robinson page, which highlighted the legendary player’s athletic and military history.

Enter Kimes, who appeared on ESPN’s “Around the Horn” later that evening to echo similar sentiments to Passan, despite it being after the fact.

“Jackie Robinson was known for many things, but above all, first and foremost, it was his ongoing courage in the face of racial discrimination. In fact, in addition to crossing the color barrier in baseball, he served in a segregated unit in the army and, in one instance, refused to move to the back of the bus, was arrested and acquitted. That matters,” Kimes said on the air.

“That history cannot be erased. It cannot be undone, and it must be recognized to fully understand and celebrate his legacy.”

Fans reacted strongly to her video, criticizing ESPN for its never-ending battle in favor of DEI initiatives.

“It’s unfortunate you haven’t learned,” one football fan wrote. “Most of the public views sports as an escape from politics, divisiveness, DEI, racial talks, etc.”

Kimes gave a snarky reply, “Thanks for the career advice but Im good.”

Fans did not let up, though.

“I miss when it was about sports and not about liberal women needing to inject soft social science BS,” a female viewer added.

“Mina [is] trying to finish ESPN off,” another football fan joked.

Kimes then responded to conservative commentator Jesse Kelly, who told his followers there was a time when sports shows stuck to sports, but now hosts scold fans like they “forgot to take out the trash.”

Kimes then trashed Kelly as a grifter and said he is not a sports fan, which she felt she aptly displayed by including a screenshot of Kelly saying he had “checked out” on NFL and NCAA football.

The host soon alluded to sexism when responding to her supporters, claiming that despite other hosts echoing her sentiments, critics chose to focus on her:

“We know what they’re doing. The funny part is when they pretend to care about sports,” Kimes wrote.

Furthermore, Kimes strangely agreed when a viewer stated that she is mostly known for her political and social takes, ignoring the fact that those views were indeed presented on a sports program.

Kimes then tripled down and said the reason was because Kelly does not watch sports, again calling him a grifter for sharing his opinion on the matter.

“Once you realize that 99% of these grifters are the same way it becomes obvious.”

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