A lightning rod for controversy since entering the public eye, South Carolina Republican Rep. Nancy Mace has made headlines again, this time because of a bizarre airport meltdown.
As the Daily Caller reports, security cameras captured the events that led to Mace’s outraged reaction, apparently prompted by what she said was a failure by police to swiftly spot her vehicle and escort her to her flight
The kerfuffle began when Mace arrived at Charleston International Airport on Wednesday morning, showing up in a vehicle different from the one for which local officers customarily watch.
Pulling up in gray or silver BMW, instead of the white model officers anticipated, the lawmaker was not recognized immediately at the curb, sparking the profanity-laden confrontation.
A subsequent incident report from the Charleston County Aviation Authority Police Department stated that officers were waiting for Mace before 6:30 a.m. at the ticketing area in order to escort the congresswoman to her flight, but did not see the white vehicle for which they had been instructed to watch.
By 7:00 a.m., Mace had reportedly made her way to the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) checkpoint, but was in a “very irate” state of mind.
The report quoted Officer A. Reed as recalling, “She immediately began loudly cursing and making derogatory comments to us and about the department. She repeatedly stated we were ‘fuc*ing incompetent’ and ‘this is no way to treat a fuc*ing U.S. Representative.’”
Though Mace was reported as having said that “[Sen.] Tim Scott would not be fuc*king treated this way,” authorities at the airport later suggested that if she had been any ordinary citizen, she would likely have been dealt with rather more harshly.
A gate agent working for American Airlines said he was in “disbelief” over the lawmaker’s conduct, with TSA Supervisor Johnny Lynch decrying the manner in which she spoke to agents and declaring plans to report her behavior up the chain of authority.
Also weighing in was current South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, who is challenging Mace in the Republican gubernatorial primary, and he took to X to express his disdain for the congresswoman’s actions.
Wilson wrote, “Law enforcement and TSA agents show up every day to protect the public, and right now they’re not even getting paid. They deserve respect and appreciation. Not profanity. Not threats. Not tantrums.”
Not hearing a word of it, Mace also ventured to X to defiantly declare, “I wish Alan Wilson spent as much time prosecuting pedophiles as he does spying on me at the airport.”
Despite the controversy surrounding her airport dust-up, the news for Mace has not been all bad in recent months, as she notched a key court win in late August, according to The Hill.
A federal judge dismissed a defamation lawsuit brought against Mace after she used a speech made on the House floor to accuse a former romantic partner of being a sexual predator, noting, “Congress has weighed the risks and benefits…and concluded that libel and related claims against federal officials acting within the scope of their employment are barred under federal law. It is this Court’s duty to uphold the rule of law.”
