Rep. Nancy Mace (R-South Carolina) speaking with attendees at the 2025 Young Women's Leadership Summit at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-South Carolina) once again finds herself in the middle of a controversy — this time, for a tirade against airport workers and police officers on Thursday, October 30 in Charleston, where, CNN reported, she was allegedly "loudly cursing" and calling them "f—— incompetent." The officers and TSA workers were escorting Mace to her flight.
Mace (whose detractors typically describe her as the "Karen of Congress") is drawing a great deal of criticism for acting that way during the partial shutdown of the United States' federal government, which finds many air traffic controllers and other government employees working without pay. But instead of apologizing, Mace doubled down both on social media and during an appearance on Fox Business.
In a Monday, November 3 post on X, formerly Twitter, the GOP lawmaker wrote, "We notified airport security with the exact time, location, and vehicle details. They never showed. We did our jobs — they didn't."
Mace, in a separate tweet, wrote, "If Charleston airport continues to lie, we will continue to expose the lies. Here is a snapshot of text messages between my employees and the Charleston Airport regarding my arrival. WE WILL NOT TOLERATE LIES. Feel free to correct your lame 'incident' reports at any point. HOLD THE LINE."
The fact that Mace is aggressively defending her behavior without apology is generating a lot of comments on X, many of them quite negative.
X user Aunt Smartassy tweeted, "I just watched Nancy Mace try to blame everyone for her behavior last Thursday at the Charleston SC airport but herself."
Journalist Aaron Rupar, tweeting the Fox Business interview, posted, "Nancy Mace blames cops for her airport meltdown."
The House Homeland Security Committee Democrats wrote, "Not only did Republicans shut down the government and force 52,000 TSA officers to work without pay — now their deranged members are screaming at them in airports. Nancy Mace didn't have an 'interaction.' She threw a tantrum at unpaid workers just trying to do their jobs."
Novelist Paul Rudnick wrote, "Authenticated photo of Nancy Mace shrieking curses at police officers she'd demanded escort her to a flight at the Charleston airport."
Conservative South Carolina gubernatorial candidate Alan Wilson, who is running against Mac, posted, "Nancy Mace didn't face a security issue. She threw an entitled temper tantrum after showing up late at the wrong entrance and then tried to blame officers. Threatening law enforcement for her own mistake is disgraceful. She owes them an apology."
GOP strategist Wesley Donehue tweeted, "Nancy Mace just now on Fox Business. WOW! This is what she does. Every single time. She loses her s– and then plays the victim. She's the worst human I know. Truly an evil piece of s——."
NBC News' Scott Wong wrote, "Nancy Mace at news conference this morning, addressing her verbal altercation with Charleston airport police and TSA agents after a mix-up about escorting her through VIP security entrance: 'Last Thursday morning, I absolutely 100% confronted the airport employees who put my safety at risk,' Mace said. 'Did I drop an F bomb? I hope I did. Did I call them incompetent? If I didn't, they absolutely earned it.'"