ESPN Commentator Claps Back After Her Comments About 'Demon' Vance Spark Hate From MAGA Trolls

Emmy-winning sports reporter Sarah Spain drew the ire of the MAGA minions after commenting on having to sit near MAGA Republican Vice President JD Vance at a Team USA women's hockey game. Spain is covering the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy.

In addition to her 15 year career at ESPN, Spain also hosts the award-winning daily iHeart women's sports Good Game with Sarah Spain podcast and serves as Content Director for the iHeart Women's Sports Network for iHeartMedia.

In a recent episode of her Good Game podcast, Spain revealed she sat near Vance at a women’s hockey game and got satanic vibes off the VP.

Spain shared:

"When I see JD Vance’s eyeliner face, I literally feel ill. I feel like I just looked at a demon, like the devil, and I don’t even believe in that."

"My body felt like when you have been spooked and you have a little tingle that feels like, ‘Ooh, something’s not right.'"

"Or like when you get in a situation and you feel like, ‘Oh, some of the energy’s bad, something could go wrong here, maybe I should get out of here,’ or something’s dangerous."

Spain later shared:

"This human being, allegedly with demon energy, is slandering a dead man who was shot in the back while helping a woman and was not fighting and was not dangerous."

Conservative media quickly picked up their latest outrage fodder.

They began sharing Spain's podcast or excerpts from it in their broadcasts and online. As expected, the MAGA minions—or their bots—began attacking Spain on social media with comments about her appearance and with ableist and misogynistic slurs.

@JaJa_no_NO/X

@CWMorgan1000/X

On Saturday, Spain responded to her haters—or their bots—with a video message on Instagram captioned:

"Hey Sarah, why are zero-follower count troll accounts posting comments about how fat and ugly you are on your posts all of a sudden?"

"GREAT QUESTION"

Spain shared:

"Just wanted to give you a heads up that if you see some weird comments on my Instagram that I haven’t had a chance to delete yet, it’s because I got called out for criticizing a pedophile-protecting, American-who-was-executed-by-ICE-slandering person."

Spain's description included Vance’s inaction on the Epstein files and failure to condemn pedophiles, as well as his misinformation and character assassination of American citizens shot and killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

Of the MAGA minions, Spain said:

"Some of the people that are so cotton-headed, that would defend literally anything done by this person, are sliding into my mentions to call me fat, tell me they hope I die and get cancer."

She added:

"So, if you see one of those, don't be confused. It's just people who are currently in favor of what this administration are doing in this country."

"I couldn't give two sh*ts about their opinion of me. Especially when I am here living the dream."

Spain concluded:

"Let's care more about people [Vance] who are protecting those who rape kids and murder American citizens than the journalists who call them out for it."

People outside the MAGAsphere appreciated Spain's candor.

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Vance’s appearance at the Winter Olympics has been met with loud, continuous boos.

It got so bad that IOC officials even had to begin asking crowds not to boo VP Vance at events he attended.