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Michelea Ponce, Jeanie Beeman Charlie Kirk t-shirt row: First reactions from Target worker, Enloe staff over Target clip
Michelea Ponce and Jeanie Beeman have both made their initial remarks after a fight over the latter wearing a Charlie Kirk ‘Freedom’ t-shirt went viral.
Michelea Ponce and Jeanie Beeman have both made their initial remarks after a fight over the latter wearing a Charlie Kirk ‘Freedom’ t-shirt went viral. The former is an Enloe Health medical assistant and TikToker, whose video of her berating an elderly Target staff member went viral.
Beeman, the Target staffer in question, was wearing a red ‘Freedom’ tee, which was popularized by Charlie Kirk, who was wearing a white version of the same, on September 10 when he was fatally shot at the Utah Valley University. In the video which has been widely shared among conservative quarters on social media, Ponce can be heard berating Beeman, calling her ‘stupid’ and ‘racist’, even as the elderly staffer appears to object to being filmed.
The video sparked massive outrage towards Ponce and a wave of support for Beeman. Chico Police in California got involved and Ponce's employer Enloe issued an update. Meanwhile, a GiveSendGo for Beeman saw donations pour in at a record rate. From setting an objective to give her a vacation, now there's talks that they might even help her retire altogether.
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With the incident having captured attention at a time when political tension is rife, both Beeman and Ponce spoke out about the matter with Action News Now.
What Michelea Ponce said
Ponce in a statement, said “I want to take full responsibility for my actions and say clearly and sincerely that I was wrong. I behaved badly, and I regret it deeply.”
She expressed a direct apology to the elderly employee. “I want to directly apologize to Jeannie. I am truly sorry for approaching you at your workplace and putting you in an uncomfortable and unfair position. You did not deserve that, and my behavior was wrong,” and added, “I also apologize to Jeannie's family for the stress and attention my actions caused. I apologize to Target as her employer, I apologize to Enloe, and I apologize to the Chico community. I understand that what I did reflected poorly on myself and disrupted a sense of safety and respect that should exist in a workplace and in our community.”
Taking stock of her own actions, Ponce also noted “I did not handle the situation the way I should have. I allowed my emotions to take over instead of choosing restraint and empathy. That was my failure, and I own it. I regret my actions, and I am genuinely sorry for the harm they caused. I wish I can go back and undo what happened, but I can acknowledge it honestly, learn from it, and commit to doing better moving forward. Again, I apologize to Jeanie and I hope that she and the community can forgive me.”
What Jeanie Beeman said
Beeman said she was unaware of the video until the police came to check in on her later. She noted she was shocked by the encounter, and had not been expecting the kind of reaction she got from Ponce for wearing the ‘Freedom Charlie Kirk’ tee. In the video, it could be seen that Ponce was berating Beeman while she was loading more such tees onto shelves, from a cart for sales.
Beeman noted that Target did not seem to mind her wearing that tee-shirt. “The STL, the one over the store, has seen me wearing it, you know, I’ve passed by him a lot of times and he never, you know, they never said anything to me,” she told the outlet.
Addressing the social media clamor for Ponce to be fired, Beeman made her feelings clear that she didn't stand with those issuing such calls. “I don't think that that's right. Two wrongs don't make a right, you know, she wronged me, but I don't want to wrong her, or I don't want her - her wrong, because it’s not going to make it right. That was her opinion, she – but she's the one that put it on Facebook or put it on - on that. So you know, but, I really wouldn't want to see her, someone lose their job over it,” she stated.
Meanwhile, the Chico Police Department noted that they'd finished conducting their investigation and found that Ponce's actions did not meet the ‘threshold for criminal acts’.
