Photo: Callaghan OHare/getty
“Nobody wants to impregnate you if you look like a thumb,” Gaetz, who is 40, said at the Student Action Summit in Tampa. “These people are odious from the inside out. They’re like 5′2”, 350 pounds.'"
Rep. Matt Gaetz.Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty
Julianna says one of her friends alerted her to the situation via text.
“I was critical of him, and then he just tweeted out a picture of me to his Twitter,” she tells PEOPLE. “I was shocked.”
Julianna, however, was not upset.
“Anyone who knows me will tell you I am not or the faint of heart,” she says. “Honestly, I laughed. I was like ‘This is gonna be good.'”
So she used the exchange to boost the work she does for the activist groupGen-Z for Change, a non-profit is comprised of over 500 digital media creators who push for civic engagement.
Julianna shared Gaetz’s post on her own Twitter account, writing: “In honor of Matt Gaetz publicly body shaming me, I’ll be fundraising for the@genzforchangeabortion fund. The Gen-Z for Choice fund splits donations across states where services are most needed.”
The group’s SAFER Initiative, launched after the Supreme Court’sDobbsdecision led to theoverturning of landmark abortion rights caseRoe v. Wade, aims to protect abortion access was already trying to raise money for abortion funds. Since Gaetz’s tweet, it’s raised more than $275,000 — putting the total amount raised to a little over $300,000.
“People assume that because I’m a teenager that I am naive or sensitive [but] I fully saw this as an opportunity,” she tells PEOPLE.
Asked if she has a message for the lawmaker, Julianna said it would be, “Something along the lines of, ‘Why are you concerned with what a teenager looks like, you creep?'”
Gaetz is currently the subject of agrand jury investigationinto whether he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and paid her to travel with him. News of the investigation into Gaetz first broke last March and, according toTheNew York Times, was opened in the final months of the Trump administration, under then-Attorney General Bill Barr.
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Gaetzhas not been charged with any crimeand has denied any wrongdoing, previously insisting to multiple news outlets that the overarching case was “rooted in an extortion effort” against him.
Gaetz was allegedly among those whoasked the Trump White House for a pardon, according to several witnesses who testified in the Jan. 6 hearings.
source: people.com
