Rep. Nancy Mace on Tuesday exposed the hypocrisy of a transgender rights witness by getting her to agree that violent rhetoric on social media is a threat to democracy, and then showing one of her own tweets that called for violence against Supreme Court justices.
Mace, R-S.C., was one of the few Republicans to appear at Tuesday’s House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on white supremacy and how anti-democratic extremist groups threaten democracy.
Mace started out by asking the witnesses, most of whom were invited by Democrats, a yes-or-no question of whether rhetoric is one way to inflict harm on American democracy. Each of the witnesses, including Alejandra Caraballo of Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic, answered "yes."
Mace then asked if rhetoric on social media and rhetoric targeting officials with violence are threats to democracy, and they all answered "yes" again.
Mace then called up a picture of a tweet Caraballo sent over the summer, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
"The 6 justices who overturned Roe should never know peace again," Caraballo tweeted. "It is our civic duty to accost them every time they are in public. They are pariahs. Since women don’t have their rights, these justices should never have a peaceful moment in public again."
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Mace asked Caraballo if she believed her own tweet was a threat to democracy, and when Caraballo said she would like to provide "context" to her tweet, Mace shut her down.
"I have a question… yes or no," Mace said. "Do you believe your rhetoric is a threat to democracy when you’re calling to accost a branch of government, the Supreme Court."
"I don’t believe that’s a correct characterization of my statements," Caraballo said.
"Did you not tweet that?" Mace asked. "That you thought Supreme Court justices should be accosted?"
Mace reminded Caraballo that a man was arrested in June with weapons who was believed to be trying to harm a Supreme Court justice and said Caraballo’s tweet is an example of why threats to democracy can come from the political left, not just the political right as Democrats like to imply.
"It’s clear to me that we have to call out the threats to our democracy emanating from where they come, whether it’s the right or the left," Mace said.
"I look forward to working with anyone, Republican or Democrat… to address these threats from within and without, and I look forward to inviting more people who actually know what they’re talking about to our witness panels in the 118th Congress," she concluded.
