Congresswoman Nancy Mace was visibly emotional after leaving a meeting with victims of Jeffrey Epstein earlier than planned.
Mace was photographed wiping tears from her eyes as she left the Government Reform Committee in Washington as it met with victims of the late sex offender on Tuesday, and shook her head when asked a question by a reporter.
The South Carolina Republican explained the early departure on her X account, stating, “As a recent survivor (not 2 years in), I had a very difficult time listening to their stories. Full blown panic attack. Sweating. Hyperventilating. Shaking. I can’t breathe.”
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Mace added, “I feel the immense pain of how hard all victims are fighting for themselves because we know absolutely no one will fight for us. GOD BLESS ALL SURVIVORS.”
The Daily Beast has contacted Mace’s representative for further comment.
In February, Mace made a House speech where she named four men she alleged had committed “some of the most heinous crimes against women imaginable.” All the men, including her ex-fiancé, denied the claims.
“I rise today to call out the cowards who think they can prey on women and get away with it,” Mace said during the speech. “Today, I’m going scorched earth.”
She added, “We’re talking about rape, nonconsensual photos, nonconsensual videos of women and underage girls and the premeditated, calculated exploitation of women and girls in my district.”
Six Epstein victims were in Washington to meet members of the Oversight Committee—including Mace, Chairman James Comer, and House Speaker Mike Johnson—for a closed-door meeting as the committee investigates the federal government’s handling of the Epstein case. The meeting lasted more than two hours, according to The New York Times.
Although Trump said he supported the release of all the files during his campaign, he has been lax in taking action. The president has been trying to distance himself from his former friend as questions over their history continue to surface, with Trump calling him a “creep.” Mace on Tuesday said she had no fears about crossing the president on the issue of Epstein.
“Donald Trump is the one who banned Jeffrey Epstein from Mar-a-Lago,” Mace said, according to The Independent.
“He was an FBI informant, and he talked to the feds to get this guy turned over. So Donald Trump is a hero in this.”
Congress has returned from summer recess ready to address Epstein’s crimes and his network, following months of speculation about a possible client list for the deceased child abuser. They will be hearing from “half a dozen or more” of Epstein’s victims this week, according to Johnson.
“The objective here is not just to uncover, investigate the Epstein evils, but also to ensure that this never happens again and ultimately to find out why justice has been delayed for these ladies for so very long,” Johnson said following the meeting on Tuesday.
“It is inexcusable,” he added. “And it will stop now because the Congress is dialed in on this.” Johnson also revealed there could be as many as 1,000 victims of both Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
The Trump administration and Department of Justice are interested in “maximum transparency” to expose the “evils” of Epstein, the speaker said.
“They’ve received and are processing 34,000 documents already,” Johnson said. “And we’re going to move that along as quickly as possible so that all of this is pushed out to the public, so the American people can make their own decisions.”
The House Oversight Committee released the first batch of the Epstein files on Tuesday night, with over 33,000 documents made available.
However, Democrats have pointed out that the majority had already been released.
“I’m glad all those files have been released to the American public, but most of it is already in the public record,” California Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, said.
Calling out Pam Bondi, Garcia added, “What we need right now is full compliance with the subpoena, and the Attorney General—who once said that the files were on her desk—should release all the files immediately.”
Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell victims Teresa Helm and Jess Michaels are due to join congressmen Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie at a press conference on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
Michaels laid out her reasons for coming forward in an interview with MSNBC on Monday. “What we’re looking for with all of these meetings is courage on the part of Republican representatives, because this is, most importantly, a bipartisan issue.”
She added, “This is not something that anyone, anyone on any side of the aisle should be for. No one should be for child sex trafficking and allowing perpetrators to escape justice, and no one should be for systems failing to prosecute over decades.”
