TJ Sabula, the auto worker at Ford Motor Company who President Donald Trump flipped off after he heckled him as a “pedophile protector” last month, still has his job and “has no discipline on his record,” a union official confirmed to the Detroit News on Monday (February 9).
“TJ, we got your back,” said United Auto Workers Vice President Laura Dickerson during a Washington, D.C., speech Monday morning.
Sabula, 40, a line worker and member of UAW Local 600, previously confirmed that he was suspended pending an investigation while speaking to the Washington Post, but said he has “no regrets” for the incident at the Dearborn, Michigan, factory, which took place ahead of Trump’s address to the Detroit Economic Club on January 13 and was captured on a cellphone video that went viral on social media. Trump was seen mouthing “you’re fired” at the time of the incident, which became a popular catch phrase during the run of his reality television series The Apprentice.
“Well, this ain’t ‘The Apprentice,'” Dickerson said, referencing the show via the Detroit News.
Dickerson went on to highlight the incident at the Ford Motor Company plant at the UAW meeting in Washington.
“In that moment, we saw what the president really thinks about working people,” she said to a room of roughly 1,000 union representatives via the Detroit News. “As UAW members, we speak truth to power. We don’t just protect rights, we exercise them.”
Sabula previously said he identifies as politically independent and, although he never voted for Trump, had supported other Republican politicians in the past. The auto worker added that he was about 60 feet away from the president when he yelled at him, which he claims Trump could hear “very, very, very clearly” and said was specifically referencing his handling of the files related to late convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The Epstein files were scheduled for a full release on December 19 in adherence with Jeffrey Epstein Files Transparency Act, however, only partial, redacted files were released by the Trump-appointed Department of Justice in the weeks since the deadline. Trump, who was reported to have had a past relationship with Epstein, previously pressured Republican lawmakers to not support the full release of the files before eventually voting in favor of and signing the Epstein Files Transparency Act into law in November.
“I don’t feel as though fate looks upon you often, and when it does, you better be ready to seize the opportunity,” Sabula told the Washington Post. “And today I think I did that.”
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