CHICO — A shopper set off a furor with a foul-mouthed video in which she confronted a Chico Target employee for wearing a Charlie Kirk shirt on the job.
In the video posted this week, a woman whose TikTok account uses the name Michelea Ponce approaches Target employee Jeanie Beeman, 72, and asks why she is wearing the shirt at work. Beeman replies that she is allowed to wear any red shirt. Ponce responds by cursing at the employee, calling her stupid and telling her she is supporting a racist.
“This is going to be taken above your (expletive) head,” Ponce says to Beeman in the video. “That’s insane. Insane. In-(expletive)-sane. Piece of (expletive).”
Beeman tells Ponce, “I’m sorry but I’m not going to sit here and argue with you. … Have a nice day.”
Charlie Kirk is the late founder of the on-campus conservative group Turning Point USA. He was well known for his viral videos debating college students across America before he was shot and killed during a debate in Utah in September. While he has been made into a martyr by some on the political right, Kirk was highly controversial for inflammatory statements he made throughout his career.
Ponce’s video blew up, causing a wave of backlash. Her social media pages have since been made private. Conservative influencer Cassandra MacDonald, who also uses the last name Fairbanks, set up a GiveSendGo fundraiser for Beeman, which in its first day got pledges of more than $150,000.
“This individual berated her fellow Californian with unwarranted fury because she was wearing a shirt supporting Charlie Kirk,” wrote MacDonald in the description of the fundraiser. “Now, we are hoping to raise enough money so that she can afford a much-needed vacation. A time for her to relax, recharge and just forget about the ugliness.”
Jeanie from Target
In a phone interview with this newspaper, Beeman said she’s worn the shirt “four or five times,” to work over the course of two months and has never had an issue.
“I just went on with my day,” Beeman said. “I talked it over with a couple of my friends that are employees. At just about the end of my shift I told one of the bosses, ‘I really need to talk to you.’ And he goes, ‘Is it about the video?’ He goes, ‘Yeah, she talked to me and showed me the video, and I told her that the shirt was OK. It was red.’”
Beeman said she likes Kirk because “he listened to the people’s concerns, and he would challenge them to think on their own.” Most importantly, she liked that Kirk was a Christian. The message she said he shared that resonated with her most was “You got to find the Lord, and that’s where your peace is going to come from.”
Still processing the incident and the fundraiser, Beeman said she has yet to think about how to spend the money raised for her.
“I’m still dumbfounded,” she said with a laugh. “Everybody gave. They don’t even know me, you know? Just the little bit they saw on my video. I’m speechless on that too. I don’t know what to say. Thank you to everybody.”
Given the opportunity to talk to Ponce, Beeman said she would tell her to simply be more nice.
Apology
Chico TV station Action News Now reported that the woman from the video, whom they identified as Michaela Castro, apologized in a statement.
“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 told the news station. “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.”
Ponce was identified online as an employee of the Chico-based health care company Enloe Health, which received calls and emails from “thousands” of people “expressing their concerns,” said the organization’s CEO and President Mike Wiltermood on Wednesday during a press conference.
“It’s very difficult when we’re taking those kind of calls, because you never know when somebody is trying to reach a family member or if a patient has a concern, and so we’re just asking people for restraint,” Wiltermood said.
To handle the influx of calls Enloe Health is asking those who want to express concerns to reach out to the number 530-332-9818 or email share@enloe.org, rather than the hospital’s general switchboard number.
Wiltermood provided this statement to local media:
“Enloe Health acknowledges that the off-hours behavior by a medical assistant employed in one of our outpatient clinics, as depicted in a recent social media post, was abhorrent and deeply concerning to our caregivers, our organization and our community. The Target employee who was verbally accosted in this post deserves significant credit for handling the situation in a calm and collected manner. …
“Rest assured, the behavior depicted in this video does not mirror Enloe Health’s core values, and we are committed to doing what is right by taking the actions necessary to protect our patients and community. At this time, we ask for patience, grace and civility as we do so. As part of our policy and commitment to confidentiality, Enloe Health does not provide comments or statements regarding individual employees or personnel matters.”
The Chico Police Department investigated the incident after receiving reports of it, but did not find any criminal violations to pursue, according to a release from the department.