SC’s Mace, GA’s Greene told to ‘stop it’ by House GOP chief after spat. It didn’t work
A Twitter spat between South Carolina’s U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace and Georgia’s U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene resulted in separate closed-door meetings with House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, who reportedly asked both congresswomen to knock off the social media insults about each other.
The meetings apparently did not work, inflaming tensions within the House Republican Conference that is vying to take back the chamber in the 2022 midterms, according to accounts from Capitol Hill reporters.
The latest tense social media posts followed a TV news appearance by Mace, who criticized Colorado’s U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert’s anti-Muslim remarks about House colleague Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
In response, on Tuesday, Georgia’s freshman representative called Mace “trash” in the Republican conference and “pro-abort.” Mace has advocated for rape and incest exemptions in anti-abortion legislation after she shared, first in the South Carolina House, about her own teenage rape.
“This is what (bat emoji, poop emoji, clown face emoji) looks like,” responded Mace, R-Daniel Island.
The Twitter posts continued for hours, marking at least the third time in the past few months Mace and Greene have traded words on social media.
CNN reported late Tuesday that Minority Leader McCarthy “summoned” the congresswomen to his office for separate meetings, telling both to “stop it.”
The cable news outlet said Greene left the meeting and told a reporter she and former President Donald Trump — whom Mace worked for during his 2016 campaign — would back a primary challenger against Mace in 2022.
Mace’s response?
“All I can say about Marjorie Taylor Greene is bless her (expletive) heart,” Mace told reporters.
The social media sparring could help both congresswomen, both of whom face primary challengers in 2022.
In Mace’s case, in 2020, she flipped the Lowcountry’s 1st Congressional District, besting Democrat Joe Cunningham by 1 percentage point. Cunningham is now running for governor. The state Legislature is currently considering a tweak to Mace’s coastal district that would make it much less competitive and a solidly Republican seat over the next decade.
However, it appears the S.C. General Assembly won’t debate the map until at least January, a few months ahead of candidate filing. The map is likely to spark lawsuits, prolonging its implementation, making it unclear whether the Legislature will tweak the House lines before the election or continue under the current district lines.
This story was originally published December 1, 2021 at 9:19 AM.
