South Carolina Rep. and gubernatorial candidate Nancy Mace verbally attacked airport officers at Charleston Airport on Thursday, according to reports seen by the Daily Beast.
An information report filed by Charleston County Aviation Authority officers describes Mace’s arrival at the airport, including the fact that the reporting officers were unable to locate her vehicle, which they were told was a white BMW, and that they had been informed she was running late.
By the time officers found Mace, she was inside the airport at the TSA Known Crewmember entrance, and “very irate.” The Washington Post reported that Mace said airport officials typically meet her at a designated area before escorting her through the crew checkpoint.
Correspondence from one of the reporting officers goes into further detail, reading, “[Mace] immediately began loudly cursing and making derogatory comments to us and about the department. She repeatedly stated we were ‘f-----g incompetent,‘ and ‘This is no way to treat a f-----g U.S. Representative.‘”
“She also said we would never treat [South Carolina Senator] Tim Scott like this. She also threatened to contact Charleston International Airport CEO Elliott Summey, ”to tell him how horrible she has been treated,” according to the report. The meltdown was first reported by Wired.
Correspondence from the second reporting officer confirms this version of events, adding that Mace said she was “tired of the police being incompetent.”
Charleston Airport declined to comment further, instead directing the Daily Beast to the police report and security footage.
According to the reporting officer, once Mace had boarded her flight and her aircraft had departed, an American Airlines gate agent approached the officers and “was in disbelief regarding her behavior,” adding, “He implied that a U.S. Representative should not be acting the way she was.” The Daily Beast has contacted American Airlines for comment.
While the reporting officers bore the brunt of Mace’s ire, the correspondence also details remarks from a TSA supervisor, who told the officer that Mace spoke to several TSA agents the same way, and that he was “very upset with how she acted at the checkpoint” and would be submitting a report.
Like other federal employees, TSA agents are currently working without pay as the country endures the second-longest government shutdown in history.
“Any other person in the airport acting and talking the way she did, our department would have been dispatched and we would have addressed the behavior,” the reporting officer wrote.
Security footage seen by the Daily Beast shows Mace arriving at the airport, getting out of a dark gray BMW and entering the airport unescorted.
In his report, the officer described reviewing the footage and observing a gray or silver BMW drop Mace at the airport, rather than the white BMW they were told to look for.
Additional footage shows Mace arriving at the TSA checkpoint and waiting a little more than two minutes before a TSA agent arrived. Four minutes later, three officers arrive and begin escorting Mace down the hallway, which Mace later claimed on X was standard protocol for members of Congress. The Daily Beast has contacted the TSA for comment.
Mace responded to the reports in a series of posts on X, including posting clips of the security footage and writing, “BREAKING NEWS: Nancy Mace arrives at the airport - with no security. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
She also responded to a post referencing a potential “incident” at the airport, writing, “Am hearing the ‘rumor’ is TSA wouldn’t let me through. This is false. And is a silly rumor.”
In a follow-up post, she called out Charleston’s The Post and Courier newspaper by name, writing, “And for the FAKE NEWS: This is the entrance ALL Members of Congress use at the airport. Are you going to write that Senators Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott use the same entrance or no? Asking for a friend @postandcourier.”
Repeating herself in a third post, Mace wrote, “Once again, The Post and Courier gets it wrong. All federally elected officials including Senators Scott and Graham use the same Crew Member Access Point at airports. That’s the federal security protocol. Maybe check your facts next time.”
The outlet reported that Mace had “entered the airport without the police escort after she arrived and headed to a security lane used by airline flight crews.”
A spokesperson for Mace told The Post and Courier that the episode was a “security failure.” Mace’s Director of Operations Cameron Morabito told The Daily Beast, “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. Our security procedures are based solely on legitimate safety concerns, and any attempt to politicize this reality is both dangerous and reckless.”
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson condemned Mace’s behavior in a press release posted to social media that read, “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.”
He continued, “This is not an isolated incident. It has become a pattern of reckless and disrespectful behavior by Nancy Mace, and South Carolinians deserve better from someone who claims to represent them.”
Wilson has declared his intention to run for governor next year against Mace.
Wilson’s statement prompted a response from Mace, who wrote on X, “I wish Alan Wilson spent as much time prosecuting p*dophiles as he does spying on me at the airport.” Mace has previously criticized Wilson over the number of child sexual exploitation cases dismissed by his office.
Wilson’s Deputy Campaign Manager Claire Brady told the Daily Beast, “Nancy Mace yelled at law enforcement and currently unpaid TSA agents for 20 minutes, calling them f-----g incompetent, but in her own delusions everything is about Alan Wilson. I hope she’ll be able to take the tinfoil hat off one day, but it seems today is not that day, and South Carolina deserves better.”
