NEED TO KNOW
- A Ford factory plant worker who called Donald Trump a “pedophile protector” has said he has “no regrets” about using the words
- On Tuesday, Jan. 13, Trump, 79, was caught on camera raising his middle finger and yelling “F–k you” in response
- Auto worker TJ Sabula told The Washington Post that has since been suspended from work, pending an investigation.
The Ford factory plant worker who called Donald Trump a “pedophile protector” has insisted he has “no regrets” after being suspended from his job pending a company investigation.
On Tuesday, Jan. 13, Trump, 79, was caught on camera raising his middle finger and yelling “F–k you” to the man in question, who has since been identified as TJ Sabula, a 40-year-old United Auto Workers Local 600 line worker at the Ford F-150 plant in Michigan, per The Washington Post. The video was first posted by TMZ.
Trump visited the Ford F-150 plant where Sabula worked on Tuesday, before delivering his speech at the Detroit Economic Club in Michigan.
Following the incident, Sabula told The Washington Post that he’d been suspended from work, pending an investigation.
“As far as calling him out, definitely no regrets whatsoever,” Sabula told the paper, but admitted that he’s concerned about the future of his job.
Sabula — who identifies as politically independent — added to the outlet that he believes he has been “targeted for political retribution” for “embarrassing Trump in front of his friends” by heckling him over the ongoing controversy surrounding the full release of the Epstein files.
Sabula said he’d never voted for Trump, but had supported other Republicans in the past, per The Washington Post.
He added that the president could hear what he said “very, very, very clearly,” and estimated that he was around 60 feet away from him when he shouted the comments, which he clarified were about how Trump had handled the Jeffrey Epstein matter, the paper noted.
“I don’t feel as though fate looks upon you often, and when it does, you better be ready to seize the opportunity,” Sabula added to the outlet on Tuesday. “And today I think I did that.”
The White House and Ford didn’t immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE for comment.
White House spokesperson Steven Cheung previously said in a statement to PEOPLE when asked about the incident on Tuesday, “A lunatic was wildly screaming expletives in a complete fit of rage, and the president gave an appropriate and unambiguous response.”
A spokesperson for Ford told TMZ on Tuesday, “We had a great event today and we’re proud of how our employees represented Ford. We’ve seen the clip you’re referring to. One of our core values is respect and we don’t condone anyone saying anything inappropriate like that within our facilities. When that happens, we have a process to deal with it but we don’t get into specific personnel matters.”
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Trump has continued to downplay his friendship with Epstein since taking office for his second term, despite the fact that the pair have been pictured together multiple times.
The disgraced financier was arrested in July 2019 and charged with one count of sex trafficking of minors and one count of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of minors. He pleaded not guilty but died by suicide while inside his jail cell in New York City’s Metropolitan Correctional Center in August 2019.
The Department of Justice released thousands of documents related to Epstein after the Congressionally mandated deadline to release them passed on Dec. 19. However, Justice Department officials told a federal judge that over 2 million documents remain unreleased, The Washington Post reported on Jan. 6.
“The Department of Justice has officially released nearly 30,000 more pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein,” the DOJ said in a Dec. 23 statement. “Some of these documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election.”
“To be clear: the claims are unfounded and false, and if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already,” the statement continued. “Nevertheless, out of our commitment to the law and transparency, the DOJ is releasing these documents with the legally required protections for Epstein’s victims.”
If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.
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