Republican Rep. Nancy Mace was involved in a heated confrontation with airport police and TSA agents at the Charleston International Airport on Thursday morning, according to an incident report from the Charleston County Aviation Authority Police Department that was obtained by NBC News.
The airport police had arranged for Mace, who is also a GOP candidate in the South Carolina governor’s race, to be escorted to her flight upon her arrival, but there was a mix-up about which vehicle she was arriving in, the report said. Officers then found Mace trying to use an entrance typically used for crew personnel at a TSA security check point.
Multiple officers who made statements for the report said Mace began cursing at them and calling the department “incompetent,” saying this is no way to treat a “f---ing U.S. representative.” Mace also said the police would have never treated South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott this way, according to the report.
On X, the congresswoman said: “TSA wouldn’t let me through” and dismissed a post from the independent site FITSNews about the incident being under investigation as a “silly rumor” and “false.”
In a separate post on X, she said all lawmakers use those crew entrances. “All federally elected officials including Senators Scott and Graham use the same Crew Member Access Point at airports,” she wrote. “That’s the federal security protocol.”
Cameron Morabito, Mace's campaign director of operations, said in a statement Friday: "Apparently, simply arriving at an airport now makes headlines if you’re leading the race for Governor."
"We are forced to take the Congresswoman’s safety extremely seriously. After the world watched Charlie Kirk’s assassination, the threats against her have only intensified," Morabito said. "Our security procedures are based solely on legitimate safety concerns, and any attempt to politicize this reality is both dangerous and reckless."
After Mace was escorted to her gate and her plane took off, one of the officers said they spoke to the TSA supervisor, Johnny Lynch, who told the officer that Mace spoke the same way to several TSA agents who were upset with her behavior.
TSA agents are among the federal workers who are currently being forced to work without pay during the government shutdown.
The same officer said in their statement that “any other person in the airport acting and talking the way she did, our department would have been dispatch[ed] and we would have addressed the behavior.”
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, who is running in the GOP primary for governor against Mace, said in a statement that “disrespecting the men and women who keep our airports safe is unacceptable."
"Law enforcement and TSA agents show up every day to protect the public, and right now they’re not even getting paid. They deserve respect and appreciation. Not profanity. Not threats. Not tantrums," Wilson said.
