The Charleston County Aviation Authority Police Department report states Mace cursed at officers and made repeated derogatory comments as they escorted her to her flight. A Transportation Security Administration supervisor informed officers that Mace treated TSA staff similarly and would file reports with superiors.
The airport confrontation represents the latest controversy for the 47-year-old Republican congresswoman whose political career has been defined by defiance, explosive allegations, and combative public behavior.
Also read: Nancy Mace files censure resolution against Ilhan Omar after heated exchange over Charlie Kirk comments
Military heritage and historic achievement
Mace was born at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to United States Army brigadier general James Emory Mace and schoolteacher Anne Mace. After leaving high school at 17, she began her workforce journey as a waitress at Waffle House on College Park Road in Ladson. Mace obtained her high school diploma through college courses at Trident Technical College in North Charleston.In 1999, she graduated magna cum laude from The Citadel with a degree in business administration, becoming the first woman to complete the Corps of Cadets program. Her father served as commandant of cadets at the Citadel from 1997 to 2005. She wrote a book about the experience titled “In the Company of Men: A Woman at The Citadel.”In 2004, she earned a master’s degree in journalism and mass communication from the University of Georgia. In 2008, she started a public relations and consulting firm called the Mace Group and became co-owner of the website FITSNews, which covers South Carolina politics, selling her stake in 2013.
Rise to Congress
Mace supported President Donald Trump for president in 2016 as a coalitions director and field director for the campaign. She served in the South Carolina General Assembly from 2018 to 2020, representing the 99th district covering Hanahan, northeast Mount Pleasant, and Daniel Island.
In 2020, she became the first Republican woman elected to Congress from South Carolina, representing a six-county district that includes Charleston. In August, 2025, Mace announced her candidacy for Governor of South Carolina in 2026.
In 2019, Mace successfully advocated for exceptions for rape and incest in a six-week abortion ban that passed the South Carolina state house, revealing during a floor speech that she had been raped at age 16.
She co-sponsored legislation opposing offshore drilling off South Carolina’s coast and opposed Trump’s plan to offer oil drilling leases off South Carolina beaches. In May, 2020, Governor Henry McMaster signed into law Mace’s prison reform bill, which ends the shackling of pregnant women in prison.
Mace has collaborated with colleagues on a bipartisan basis and managed to get bills signed into law by the President, including the Quantum Computing Cybersecurity Preparedness Act and the Human Trafficking Prevention Act of 2022.
Airport incident details
The Thursday airport confrontation began when Charleston County Aviation Authority Police officers were assigned to escort Mace at 6:30 a.m. from the curb to her flight. Officers were told she would arrive in a white BMW at the ticketing area.
Around 6:35 a.m., they were notified she was running late. Shortly before 7 a.m., dispatch informed officers Mace was at the Known Crewmember program entrance, a trusted access lane with a smaller TSA checkpoint intended for flight crew members.
When officers located her, a supplemental incident report states the congresswoman immediately began “loudly cursing and making derogatory comments to us about the department. She repeatedly stated we were ‘F****** incompetent,’ and ‘this is no way to treat a f****** US Representative,’” the report states.
“She also said we would never treat Tim Scott like this,” an officer tasked with escorting Mace states in the report, referring to South Carolina’s senior senator.
“The entire walk to gate B-8 she was cursing and complaining and often doing the same into her phone,” an officer writes in the report. The main incident report notes Mace was yelling into her phone, either during a phone call or dictating text messages.
After Mace’s flight departed, an American Airlines gate agent approached officers. According to the report, he “stated he was in disbelief regarding her behavior. He implied that a US Representative should not be acting the way she was.”
A TSA supervisor told officers “he was very upset with how she acted at the checkpoint.” The supervisor stated Mace had “talked to several TSA agents the same way” and would be “submitting a report to his superiors about her unacceptable behavior,” according to the report.
Also read: Who is Nancy Mace? Lawmaker who loves ICE detention videos now wants to govern South Carolina
TSA agents are currently working without pay due to the ongoing government shutdown.
One officer noted in the report that after reviewing video footage, they determined Mace had been dropped off in a BMW that was not white, contrary to initial information provided to police.
“Any other person in the airport acting and talking the way she did, our department would have been dispatch (sic) and we would have addressed the behavior,” the incident report concludes.
Response from Mace campaign
Mace’s director of operations Cameron Morabito defended her behavior in a statement: “Apparently, simply arriving at an airport now makes for a worthy headline. We are forced to take the Congresswoman’s safety extremely seriously. After the world watched Charlie Kirk’s assassination, the threats against her have only intensified. Our security procedures are based solely on legitimate safety concerns, and any attempt to politicize this reality is both dangerous and reckless.”
On X, Mace addressed the incident, writing, “for the FAKE NEWS: This is the entrance ALL Members of Congress use at the airport. Are you going to write that Senators Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott use the same entrance or no? Or no?”
Explosive sexual assault allegations
In February, 2025, Mace delivered a 53-minute speech on the House floor accusing her ex-fiancé Patrick Bryant and three other South Carolina men of rape, physical assault, and sex trafficking against her and other women. Describing herself as “going scorched earth,” Mace accused the men by name while standing beside a giant posterboard labeled “PREDATORS” with their photos.
Also read: ‘Get ready…’: GOP Rep Nancy Mace, who loves ICE arrest videos, enters South Carolina governor race
Mace also accused South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, who is mulling a gubernatorial run, of ignoring her allegations. Wilson’s office firmly denied Mace’s claims, stating they had “not received any reports or requests for assistance from any law enforcement or prosecution agencies regarding these matters.”
Bryant told the Associated Press: “I categorically deny these allegations. I take this matter seriously and will cooperate fully with any necessary legal processes to clear my name.” The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division confirmed they opened an investigation focused on Bryant in December, 2023.
In October, 2025, a Charleston County judge ordered attorney Barrett Brewer to pay $33,456.74 to Mace’s attorneys and $15,000 to attorneys of an unnamed alleged sexual assault victim. Mace argued in court filings that Bryant formed a company to obtain depositions to discredit her after her House floor speech.
Transgender rights crusade
Mace has been arguably the most vocal figure in the GOP’s crusade against transgender rights, introducing a controversial resolution in November to ban trans women from using women’s restrooms in the Capitol in response to the first openly trans woman being elected to Congress.
Mace has since continued to cast anti-trans views on her social media and often uses transphobic slurs, including during a February House committee hearing.
In the US House, Mace introduced a bill to ban transgender women from using bathrooms on federal property that do not correspond with their sex assigned at birth, following a campaign to bar first-term Rep. Sarah McBride, the first transgender lawmaker in Congress, from using women’s restrooms on Capitol Hill.
Also read: ‘We have rogue sheriffs in South Carolina…’: Nancy Mace’s fierce warning to fed agents amid gov bid
Mace said the efforts were necessary to “protect women and girls,” a common argument used by Trump and his administration to support their anti-trans measures.
Additional controversies and political trajectory
Mace’s political career is defined by defiance and controversy. Once considered a moderate, Mace has fully embraced Trump’s agenda. She remains a strong supporter of Trump, a fellow Republican who has been accused by about two dozen women of sexual misconduct dating back to the 1970s.
Recent controversies include public accusations against fellow Republican Rep. Cory Mills for alleged “stolen valor,” a lawsuit she filed claiming defamation by a man she publicly accused of sex crimes, and recurring attacks from partisan critics accusing her of flip-flops and dishonesty.
Partisan adversaries have framed Mace as inconsistent and ideologically unreliable, labeling her a “never-Trump phony” and accusing her of flip-flopping on issues like gay marriage and marijuana policy.
2026 gubernatorial race
The airport incident comes as Mace campaigns for South Carolina governor. Her likely Republican gubernatorial opponent, Attorney General Alan Wilson, responded to the confrontation: “Disrespecting the men and women who keep our airports safe is unacceptable. Law enforcement and TSA agents show up every day to protect the public, and right now they’re not even getting paid.”
TSA and American Airlines did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding the Thursday incident.
The post Who is Nancy Mace? S. Carolina Republican Congresswoman and SC Gov candidate cussed ‘f****** incompetent’ at TSA agents; anti-trans, rage-baiter political mammoth finally tastes own medicine? appeared first on Veritas News.
