On her third day as a congresswoman, as violent marauders overtook the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) came up with a bold plan: Get punched in the face.
That detail first appeared in a Washington Post story Wednesday night, as part of a look at the members of Congress who were once appalled by Donald Trump’s behavior who are now jumping to endorse him.
But the anecdote is also one The Daily Beast heard as part of the reporting on a broader story on Mace’s strange ascent in Washington that has yet to be published.
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According to three sources who heard the comments firsthand, Mace used those exact words: She wanted to go “get punched in the face.”
“She literally begged us to let her leave the office and head to the floor so she could ‘get punched in the face’ and ‘get media attention,’” one former aide said, who shared the story on the condition of anonymity. “That’s word for word what she requested.”
The source continued that there were “several of us in the office who heard it.”
“And she had been in office for three days, if that tells you anything about her motivation,” this former aide said.
Mace ultimately backed off the idea in the face of pushback from her staff.
A representative for Mace did not immediately return The Daily Beast’s request for comment. But when approached about the incident, the congresswoman told the Post: “What you write doesn’t pass for real journalism.”
Just three years later, Mace has seemingly undergone a 180-degree turn in her feelings on Trump, endorsing the former president this week over her home-state ally Nikki Haley—who backed her most recent re-election bid while she fought off a Trump-backed opponent.
As The Daily Beast reported last October, Mace has been privately suggesting to her Republican colleagues that she may have an actual shot at being Trump’s vice president—despite the fact that one source close to the former president said he “absolutely hates Nancy Mace.”
The Jan. 6 incident also underscores the congresswoman’s thirst for the spotlight, as evidenced by a strategy memo she wrote in 2021, just after the Capitol insurrection that she repeatedly expressed had troubled her greatly.
In it, she described herself as “THE freshman thought leader on federal issues”—officially dubbing herself “NATIONAL NANCY.”
Her staff handbook also details Mace’s singular focus on the office’s public relations strategy—with aides expected to send out at least one press release and book the congresswoman on one television show daily, rates that far surpasses that of her colleagues.
“It is not normal for a member to prioritize media and comms over actual legislation like that,” a former Mace staffer told The Daily Beast last year. “In my experience with and in other offices, comms serves to promote what the member is doing legislatively. In Mace’s office, legislation served to get her more media opportunities.”
