ESPN personality reprimanded for vulgar Trump insult in television interview

Another ESPN personality had some unkind words for President Donald Trump, and she has been reprimanded by the network.

Katie Nolan, a recent hire at ESPN, appeared on the talk show Desus & Mero on Viceland on Wednesday night.

The conversation was largely apolitical, but at one point they got on a tangent about Trump’s common hand gestures.

After one of the hosts refers to Trump’s habit of giving the thumbs up, Nolan shoots back “Well that’s because he’s a [expletive].” She then catches herself, apparently realizing she’s said something she should not have, and says “That’s because he’s a f---ing stupid person.”

It’s unclear what the first comment was, because Viceland bleeped the entire thing out. But it was obviously worse than “f---ing stupid person.” Viceland allows for the use of some profanity on its programs.

The exchange comes at the 13:30 mark in the video. There is some explicit language in the clip.

ESPN’s response

ESPN has told its personalities to refrain from commenting publicly on political matters that have no relation to sports, and to be respectful when commenting. That policy stems from the controversy surrounding Jemele Hill, who called Trump a white supremacist on Twitter and was later suspended for discussing a boycott of the NFL advertisers.

ESPN’s statement on Nolan:

“We have looked into the totality of Nolan’s comments, they were inappropriate and we have addressed it with her.”

That vague statement doesn’t necessarily mean that Nolan hasn’t been suspended or punished, as ESPN does not make all of its disciplinary actions public. However, many are watching closely to see whether the network handles Nolan’s transgression with the same severity as it did Hill’s.