Rep. Nancy Mace Says She Was 'Physically Accosted.’ Witnesses Say It Was Just A Handshake.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) on Tuesday said the Capitol Police arrested a man who had “physically accosted” her on Capitol grounds.
But people at a foster youth advocacy event who saw the interaction quickly disputed that characterization, saying the man had simply greeted Mace with a handshake before asking her to rethink her positions on trans youth.
Mace, who co-chairs the Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth, spoke at a reception at the Rayburn House Office Building earlier in the day. In a post on her official account on X, Mace said she was attacked after the meeting over her “fight to protect women,” suggesting the confrontation this week was over her crusade against trans people.
In a separate post on her personal X account, Mace gave more details about her physical condition on Tuesday: “One new brace for my wrist and some ice for my arm and it’ll heal just fine,” she wrote.
In recent weeks, Mace has employed anti-trans rhetoric to take aim at her soon-to-be colleague, incoming Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-Del.), who made history when she became the first openly trans person elected to Congress last month. Mace convinced her Republican colleagues to pass a discriminatory measure to block trans people from using bathrooms at the Capitol that are in line with their gender identities. She has spent the following weeks mocking trans people on her social media accounts.
The Capitol Police later identified the man Mace accused of assault as James McIntyre, 33, a co-founder of the Illinois chapter of Foster Care Alumni of America. His work advocating for foster youth has been lauded, and he was named “Public Citizen of the Year” in 2019 by the National Association of Social Workers chapter in Illinois.
In her report, Mace accused McIntyre of taking “her hand with both of his hands and shook her arm up and down in an exaggerated, aggressive hand shaking motion.”
But others in the room described the encounter as a normal discussion.
Elliott Hinkle, a foster youth advocate and consultant on foster issues who was at the event, told The Washington Post that McIntyre had gone up to Mace as she was leaving the event and that when McIntyre had stuck his hand out for a greeting, Mace reached hers out. Hinkle said McIntyre told her: “Trans youth are also foster youth, and they need your support.”
“From what I saw, it was a normal handshake and interaction that I would expect any legislator to expect from anyone as a constituent,” Hinkle told The Imprint.
McIntyre’s arrest “sends a chilling effect of, you’re not actually safe to go to the Capitol Hill and share an opinion that is true for you, that isn’t violent — because right now if you do, a congressperson might say that they were physically assaulted and call the police on you,” Hinkle said. “So how would a young person in care feel safe?”
Lisa Dickson, an advocate for foster youth, also disputed Mace’s characterization of the interaction on Facebook after the event.
“This Congresswoman came to a national foster care gathering,” Dickson wrote. “She told participating foster care youth and alumni that it was a safe space, that they were not just a number, and that they could come to her with anything.”
“A youth leader shook her hand, and asked [for] her support for trans foster youth — and she accused him of assault and had him arrested by [Capitol] police.”
McIntyre was held overnight at the D.C. Jail complex. He was released from custody on Wednesday and allowed to return home to Chicago.
He has pleaded not guilty to an assault charge.
Mace shared a photo of her arm in a brace on Wednesday, accusing the media of giving attention to “activists chasing their 15 minutes of fame.”
“Nobody will twist my arm (literally) or break me into bowing to leftwing extremists,” she wrote.
#HoldTheLinepic.twitter.com/XtJYG3HgbQ
— Rep. Nancy Mace (@RepNancyMace) December 11, 2024
This article has been updated throughout with witness accounts of McIntyre and Mace’s interaction.
