Nancy Mace A Republican congressman from South Carolina went on a tirade against law enforcement at Charleston International Airport on Thursday, WIRED has learned.
According to an incident report obtained by WIRED under the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act, Mace swore at police officers, repeatedly making derogatory comments about them. The report states that Transportation Security Administration The (TSA) supervisor told officers that Mace had treated their employees in a similar manner and that they would report her to their superiors.
According to the report, Charleston County Aviation Police Department officers were assigned to meet Mays at 6:30 a.m. to escort her from the curb to her flight and were told she would arrive in a white BMW at the ticketing location. The report states that around 6:35 a.m. they were told she was running late; they never saw the car arrive.
Just before 7 a.m., the report says, a dispatcher told officers that Mace was at the entrance to the Known Crew Member program, a secure access lane with a smaller TSA-monitored checkpoint reserved for flight crew members.
When officers quickly located her, according to an additional incident report filed by one of the officers, the congresswoman immediately began “loudly swearing and making derogatory comments about the department. She repeatedly stated that we were 'fucking incompetent' and 'this is no way to treat a f***ing U.S. Representative,'” the report states.
As officers escorted her to the gate, she engaged a South Carolina Senate colleague in a fight, according to the report.
“She also said we would never treat Tim Scott like that,” one officer assigned to escort Mace says in the report.
“She cursed and complained the entire way to Gate B-8 and frequently did the same on her phone,” the officer wrote in the report. In the main incident report, the officer notes that Mace was yelling into her phone, either while making a phone call or dictating text messages. “After standing near the B-8 for several minutes and continuing her tirade, she finally boarded the plane.”
After Mace's flight took off, officers were approached by an American Airlines gate agent, the report said. According to the report, he “stated that he did not believe her behavior. He implied that a U.S. representative should not behave the way she did.”
The report goes on to say that officers checked in with a TSA supervisor, who told officers that “he was very upset with the way she acted at the checkpoint.” That supervisor, according to the report, told officers that Mace had “spoken to several TSA agents in the same manner” and that they would “file a report with his superiors regarding her unacceptable behavior.” TSA agents are currently not being paid their full salaries due to the ongoing government shutdown.
