More than a week after Mina Kimes first praised Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz for “modeling a different kind of masculinity,” her feud with OutKick and Clay Travis continues escalating.
Taking to X on Sunday, the ESPN NFL analyst responded to a post from Travis accusing her of lying when she said that OutKick had caused racist attacks against her and her family by spreading “outright lies” about her. In her initial post, Kimes provided four screenshots of such attacks, before taking aim at Travis and his audience.
“I want to add: I don’t see myself as a victim at all. Weird shit comes with the job. And the job—my job—is an absolute dream—I get to talk about football with my friends on TV,” Kimes wrote. “Meanwhile, Clay will go back to sweatily peddling inflammatory bullshit for an audience who sends tweets like those, bc it’s all he has: no one actually cares what he thinks about sports.
“Aight I gotta go watch Bo Nix.”
Travis responded to Kimes’ post by downplaying the racist attacks against her as “some anonymous people” being “mean to you on the Internet” before further encouraging her to cite the specific lies his outlet had spread about her. The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show co-host proceeded to self-retweet his previous social media posts and an OutKick article critical of Kimes.
The impetus for the Kimes-Travis feud stems from comments she made praising Walz during an episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out that was released on Aug. 9.
“There’s something, to me, really important about seeing someone like this modeling a different kind of masculinity,” Kimes said. “Yes, they’re calling him ‘coach,’ and whatnot, but in the same breath, they are emphasizing, ‘This man, the year he was a football coach, also ran the gay-straight alliance at the high school.’ That’s really powerful in a way that goes far beyond politics and electability, which is the discussion we’re having. There are very few models like that in American public life.”
While Kimes had prefaced her comments by saying that she wanted to take the conversation “outside of politics,” her quote was unsurprisingly politicized when OutKick’s Bobby Burack wrote a story/column under the headline “Mina Kimes Campaigns For Tim Walz Because He Oozes Her Type Of ‘Masculinity.'” That prompted former NBC sideline reporter-turned-conservative commentator Michele Tafoya to retweet Burack’s story with her own criticism of Kimes.
“I am sincerely embarrassed for @minakimes,” Tafoya wrote. “And how pathetic that her kind of ‘masculinity’ means more than the candidate’s record, which is abysmal. Sincerely, A Minnesotan”
Kimes responded with a video clip of a fake-scared LeBron James (think Scott Hall/Razor Ramon doing his spooky fingers ), which prompted OutKick to write another story about her . Only this story proceeded to take on a life of its own, with the ESPN analyst allegedly responding to a request for comment from OutKick’s John Simmons by accusing the outlet of spreading lies about her, resulting in racism against her and her family.
That led to another OutKick article (are you sensing a trend here?), this one written by Travis.
Travis also went on a social media spree, asking Kimes to clarify which lies his outlet has told about her and criticizing her for retaliating by blocking him ( Kimes insisted she’s had Travis blocked for years ). As Travis continued to criticize Kimes on social media into Sunday, that ultimately prompted what appears to be her final response regarding the matter.
While Kimes has never been shy to speak out or defend herself on social media, it’s somewhat surprising that she was willing to engage with OutKick on multiple occasions. As evidenced by Travis and OutKick tagging her (and, in some instances, ESPN PR representatives ) in most of their responses and the fact that the Fox-owned outlet has now written four stories on the subject, it’s reasonable to believe that any response Kimes provides will only result in additional content for OutKick, regardless of what she says.
Conversely, it’s understandable that Kimes would feel a need to defend herself considering the racist nature of the attacks she has received — regardless of whether the accounts are “anonymous” or not. It’s easy to tell someone to “be the bigger person” when you aren’t the one on the other end of such attacks.
As for Kimes’ allegation that OutKick has spread lies about her, she noted that Travis misrepresented her blocking him in an apparent attempt to make her look thin-skinned. It’s also worth noting that at no point during her appearance on PTFO was she opening campaigning for Walz as OutKick’s original headline and story claimed, although it’s unclear if that is one of the lies she cited in her response.
While it’s hardly surprising that OutKick latched onto her comments regarding Walz, Kimes found herself in an unenviable position where every response she had would not only further the feud but provide additional content for the very outlet criticizing her. After three days of going back and forth, it appears Kimes has since moved on to focusing on Bo Nix’s preseason play — not that that has stopped OutKick from doing its best to keep the conflict alive .
The post Mina Kimes: Peddling ‘inflammatory bulls***’ is all Clay Travis has appeared first on Awful Announcing .
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