According to two reports, as pro-Trump rioters stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying the presidential election on January 6, freshman GOP Rep. Nancy Mace tried to convince her staff to let her get attacked.
The Washington Post reports Mace was so incensed at then-President Donald Trump that she brought up the idea of approaching rioters head-on in the hopes she would get punched in the face and become the “face of anti-Trump Republicans.”
She’s since endorsed Trump to become the GOP’s next presidential nominee.
Hours after the Post published its piece, The Daily Beast seconded the reporting, noting that three sources who personally witnessed the conversations confirmed they happened. Those sources told the Beast that Mace explicitly said she wanted to “get punched in the face” for “media attention.”
Asked about the incident by the Washington Post, Mace insulted the publication. Her office did not respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
Weeks after the January 6 attempted insurrection, Mace and Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez squared off online after the South Carolina legislator accused Ocasio-Cortez of lying about what happened that day.
During her short time in office, Mace has repeatedly been accused of making decisions to draw attention from the press. In November 2023, The Daily Beast reported that she required her staffers to book her on national television at least one to three times per day.
She’s also gone out of her way to draw attention to herself and her politics with outfit choices. In July 2022, she wore a jacket with “My State is Banning Exceptions Protect Contraception” on the back to protest her party’s attempts to ban contraception.
More than a year later, as the House struggled to find someone to replace ousted then-Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, Mace wore a shirt emblazoned with a “scarlet A.”
She later told Business Insider the attention the fashion choice drew surprised her.
“It got way more than it should have,” Mace said.
