Nancy Mace is right about safety. Does it justify her indecent behavior? | Opinion
Rep. Nancy Mace is right about one thing. The safety of our elected officials must be paramount, and there can be no security lapses, given the uptick in attempted and political assassinations. It’s a serious issue that must not get caught up in ideological fights.
During a Monday morning press conference to explain what happened during a dust-up with security officials at Charleston Internation Airport, Mace noted that we aren’t too far removed from the murder of conservative Charlie Kirk, two assassination attempts on President Donald Trump, and the attack on Republicans at a softball game practice.
She didn’t but could have also mentioned the assassination attempt on President Barack Obama. Taylor Taranto – one of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists whom Trump provided clemency for the attack on the Capitol – showed up in the former president’s neighborhood well armed after Trump put Obama’s home address in a social media post.
Taranto had “hundreds of rounds of nine-millimeter ammunition, a steering wheel lock, and a machete” and a couple of guns in his van. He served nearly two years in jail and is under supervision for three years. Trump’s Department of Justice removed Taranto’s Jan. 6 involvement from a sentencing memo.
We are living through a disturbing time with disturbing men such as Taranto having access to high-powered weapons. Elected officials such as Mace are right to be concerned about their safety. It’s just that Mace is precisely the wrong messenger. Her behavior at the Charleston airport, before and since shows why.
According to initial reports, the congresswoman representing South Carolina’s First Congressional District spent much of her time traveling through the airport berating officials and police officers and drowning them in four-letter words.
Her behavior was so ugly, it convinced those within earshot to file reports. It was a clear case of a powerful woman using that power to belittle people she knows could not respond in kind or risk losing their jobs. Had Mace been not been a member of Congress and acted that way at an airport in a post-9/11 world, she would have been placed in handcuffs and escorted to a detention area rather than ushered unto an airplane.
She did not apologize for her ugly outburst, instead expressing pride in what she had done and saying cursing is not a crime.
Airport employees “put my safety at risk,” she said. “We receive so many credible threats, we cannot keep up with them.”
She will not tolerate “lazy” “mediocre safety and security,” she went on.
If we ignore – just for a minute – her hyperbolic language and indecent treatment of fellow human beings, Mace does have a point. It’s important to determine why there was a miscommunication between the airport and her staff. Security officers designated to walk with her were in a different part of the airport when Mace arrived. Airport officials said Mace did not show up at the agreed upon time or in the vehicle they were told she would. Mace disputes that, saying it was the latest of two dozen security lapses she claims to have suffered while traveling through Charleston.
Mace is not the most reliable narrator. During the Monday press conference, she repeated the debunked claim that she was attacked in the Capitol months ago. She was not. Mace was confronted by a foster youth advocate upset with the way Mace talked about trans children. Mace is known for routinely using the slur for trans people. What Mace called a physical attack, eyewitnesses said was a normal handshake. Trump’s Department of Justice dismissed Mace’s claims in April.
I believe she receives threats like other high-profile elected officials. I just have trouble accepting her version of the events that unfolded in Charleston. She’s not trustworthy and has proved time and again to lack the maturity to be South Carolina’s next governor, an office she wants to be elevated to next year.
While we should not ignore Mace’s concerns about safety, neither should we ignore her hyperbolic language and indecent behavior. Those things matter, too, especially during uncertain times such as these.
Issac Bailey is a McClatchy columnist in North and South Carolina.