A House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing briefly derailed on Tuesday afternoon when Rep. Nancy Mace (R-South Carolina) in a fiery exchange asked Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) if she wanted to “take it outside.”
Shortly after Crockett introduced an amendment to reinstate a subcommittee on civil rights and civil liberties, which was disbanded during the 118th Congress, her Republican colleague Mace responded with a lengthy rebuttal in which she asserted that Crockett’s motion was “hypocritical” and detrimental to the rights of women.
“I don’t want to hear about you talk about rights, individual rights, civil rights, because you can’t find the courage from the ’60s to fight for women all around America,” Mace charged before pivoting to a lengthy rebuttal about transgender women, and while referencing her experience as a survivor of sexual assault, she discussed her advocacy to keep transgender women out of women’s restrooms.
Crockett responded to Mace’s comment, saying “I don’t even know how we got there … but I can see that somebody’s campaign coffers really are struggling right now so she’s going to keep saying ‘trans, trans, trans’ so that people will feel threatened, and chile, listen …” before Mace interrupted her.
“I am no child! Do not call me a child. Don’t even start. I am a grown woman … If you want to take it outside we can do that,” Mace said.
Mace appeared to be taking offense to Crockett’s use of “chile” – an African American Vernacular English term and predominantly Southern variation of the word “child” often used to refer to children or express disbelief, shock or disapproval. The dustup between the lawmakers occurred on the same day the House passed a bill banning transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports in elementary school through college.
The tense exchange was quelled by committee Chair James Comer (R-Kentucky), who ultimately ruled that Mace’s remarks could mean “you could go outside and have a cup of coffee or have a cup of beer” and did not go against committee rules.
A spokeswoman for Crockett, whose congressional district represents much of Dallas, said Mace’s remark was clearly threatening violence.
“It was clear that Rep. Mace was threatening physical violence against Congresswoman Crockett as part of her performative, ridiculous meltdown,” Chloe Kessock, communications director for Crockett, said in a statement to The Washington Post. “Her slur-ridden screed exemplifies exactly why the House Oversight Committee needs to pass Congresswoman Crockett’s amendment to reinstate the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.”
In response to a request for comment, a spokesperson for Mace’s office referred The Post to a post on the Republican congresswoman’s X account.
“I’m no child. And if I wanted a physical fight, you’d know it. That’s not what this was. I won’t be bullied by someone who wants to take away women’s rights while lecturing about civil rights,” Mace wrote.
Crockett and Mace, both firebrands of the respective parties, have long feuded on social media and in the committee hearings since joining Congress.
Crockett, a former public defender who has gained notoriety for her uncensored and snappy retorts with Republican colleagues, went viral last year during an Oversight Committee hearing in which she delivered the viral alliterative insult “bleach-blond, bad-built butch body” toward Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia), who had taunted Crockett with a remark about her fake eyelashes.
Mace also has been in the national spotlight for her outspoken condemnation of transgender athletes’ participation in sports and using rhetoric that transgender advocacy groups have denounced, including calling transgender people “mentally ill.” She introduced legislation that would ban transgender women from women’s bathrooms on Capitol Hill, a move she made two weeks after Democrat Sarah McBride of Delaware became the first openly trans person elected to Congress.