US Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina allegedly berated police officers at Charleston International Airport Thursday morning, allegedly “loudly cursing” at officers and saying they were “f**king incompetent,” according to an incident report from police.
Mace, who closely aligns herself with President Donald Trump and is currently running for South Carolina governor, has repeatedly shared concerns about her safety in the past. Last December, she reported being “physically accosted” on Capitol grounds.
One officer said in their report: “Any other person in the airport acting and talking the way she did, our department would have been dispatch (sic) and we would have addressed the behavior.”
CNN has reached out to Mace’s office for comment. Mace’s Director of Operations Cameron Morabito told The New York Times, “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,” Morabito told the Times. “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.”
Mace also briefly spoke with the Times, saying she did complain to the airport because she is concerned about her safety given recent death threats against her. “We all get frustrated when it’s not taken seriously,” she told the outlet.
Mace ran late, arrived in different vehicle
Two Charleston County Aviation Authority police officers were informed at 6 a.m. they would need to escort Mace from the curb to her flight, according to an incident report filed by the officers. They were told she would arrive at 6:30 a.m. in a white BMW, the report says.
At 6:20 a.m., three officers went to the ticketing curb area and waited for her car, the report said. They were informed at around 6:35 a.m. she was running 15 minutes late and kept waiting for the car, they said, not seeing a white BMW.
Security video provided to CNN by the airport shows Mace arriving at a sidewalk entrance area at 6:50 a.m. in a dark gray sedan. No other people were visible in the video. Airport officials said they had no further comment.
A little before 7 a.m., officers were told Mace was waiting at the Transportation Security Administration known crewmember entrance, and the officers made their way over “in less than a minute,” the report said.
When officers met Mace to escort her, they said she was “very irate” and “began loudly cursing and making derogatory comments to us and about the department.”
“She repeatedly stated we were ‘f**king incompetent,’ and ‘this is no way to treat a f**king US Representative’,” one officer said in his report. “She also said we would never treat (US Sen.) Tim Scott like this.”
A different security video provided to CNN by the airport shows the TSA security checkpoint with Mace speaking with two airport officials at the known crewmember entrance. It appears an airport employee made a call to an unknown person, and approximately three minutes later the two officers arrived to escort Mace. It took about seven minutes from the time Mace appears at the known crewmember entrance and starts interacting with airport employees to when the escorting officers arrive, according to the video.
Mace allegedly continued cursing at the officers and into her phone while they walked with her to the gate, according to the account of one officer. After she boarded her flight, an airline employee and several other TSA agents said they were shocked and upset by her behavior, the officer said.
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