Nancy Mace Faces Backlash as Eyewitnesses Question Assault
Three eyewitnesses said a foster care advocate merely shook Mace's hand and told her that trans youth in foster care need support.
A transgender foster care advocate is disputing U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace’s account of an encounter that resulted in an Illinois man’s arrest, according to The Hill.
The South Carolina Republican, who has sought the spotlight as part of an attempt to ban transgender women from entering female-designated facilities on all federal properties, claimed that she was “physically accosted” by a “pro-trans man” on Tuesday.
U.S. Capitol Police subsequently confirmed that they had arrested 33-year-old James McIntyre of Illinois in connection with the incident, which occurred at a foster care youth advocacy event at the Rayburn House Office Building.
McIntyre had previously been named “Public Citizen of the Year” by the Illinois chapter of the National Association of Social Workers in 2019 for his advocacy on behalf of foster care youth. Mace, one of six co-chairs of the Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth, had delivered a speech at the event.
“As she went to leave the room, James met her by the door where people could see her and him to say, ‘Trans youth are in foster care and they need your support,’ and gave a handshake and then walked back to his seat and sat down,” Elliott Hinkle, another foster care advocate who was present at the event, told The Hill. “It seemed a pretty normal interaction from those of us who witnessed it.”
Hinkle, who is transgender and has experience in foster care, said McIntyre was just calling attention to the fact that 30% of youth in foster care identify as LGBTQ.
“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.
Two other witnesses, who were not named, confirmed Hinkle’s description of the interaction as accurate.
Hinkle said that after Mace left the event, one of her aides returned to the reception and asked McIntyre his name and whether he would repeat what he said to Mace.
McIntyre left the celebration, but was later summoned back to the Rayburn House Office Building by Capitol Police, who showed up with an “overwhelming presence” to arrest McIntyre, according to Hinkle.
“We take the protection of Members of Congress seriously,” Capitol Police told The Hill.
A police report on the incident documented Mace’s account of the handshake, which seeks to paint McIntyre as overly aggressive.
“The victim [Mace] offered their right hand to the individual to shake hands, and upon their hands coming together, the individual placed their other hand on top of the victim’s hand in a clasping manner so that the victim’s hand was between both of the subject’s hands,” the report reads.
“The victim stated that the subject began to aggressively and in an exaggerated manner shake her arm up and down in a hand-shaking motion. The effect of the motion was described as her arm flailing for about 3-5 seconds,” the report continues. “The victim stated that she attempted to pull her hand away from the subject but was held in place by the subject. During the shaking motion, the victim advised that the subject stated, ‘trans youth deserve advocacy.'”
Mace told police she was experiencing pain in her wrists, arm, and armpit/shoulder area after the incident, according to the report. She has since been seen around Capitol Hill with her arm in a sling. She had previously claimed on X that she only needed “a new brace for my wrist and some ice for my arm” for her injury to heal.
Asked to respond to Hinkle’s characterization of events, Mace spokesperson Gabrielle Lipsky cast the congresswoman as a victim.
“With an ongoing investigation, we’re limited in what we can share beyond what Capitol Police have already made public,” Lipsky said in a statement to The Hill.
McIntyre appeared in D.C. Superior Court on Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to a charge of assaulting a government official.
Hinkle noted that Mace’s reaction to the encounter “sends a chilling effect” to any advocates who wish to lobby their elected representatives on any issue, “only to find out that you might have the police called on you for sharing your perspective, and you might have someone claim that you assaulted them when you just shook their hand.”
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