A man accused of assaulting Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., on Capitol Hill was arrested Tuesday night, U.S. Capitol Police said.
The man was identified as James McIntyre, 33, of Illinois, NBC News reported. He is charged with assaulting a government official.
Mace, who has faced criticism for introducing a bill to ban transgender women from using the women’s restrooms at the U.S. Capitol, wrote on X that she had been “physically accosted” by a man advocating for trans rights. Capitol Police said a House member’s office had reported an incident in the Rayburn House Office Building.
“One new brace for my wrist and some ice for my arm and it’ll heal just fine,” she added.
Capitol Police did not offer any details about McIntyre to NBC News. Three witnesses with McIntyre’s foster care advocacy group told The Imprint that Mace and McIntyre merely shook hands and that he made a comment about the number of transgender youths in foster care who “need your support.”
The Washington Post later similarly reported that witnesses said the encounter was not physically aggressive. Elliott Hinkle, a foster care advocate from Wyoming, told the Post:
“What we witnessed was a handshake, a passionate shake, but it didn’t look like an assault or intended aggression,” Hinkle said of the several people he said saw the encounter. He said McIntyre told Mace: “Trans youth are also foster youth, and they need your support.”
It’s unclear what exactly transpired in the exchange; whether there is video of the incident is unclear. Mace appeared to dispute the witnesses’ characterization of the incident, writing on X: “The usual suspects in the media are using the assault on me to prop up misogyny on the Left, giving a platform to activists chasing their 15 minutes of fame.”
“With an ongoing investigation, we’re limited in what we can share beyond what Capitol Police have already made public,” Mace’s spokesperson, Gabrielle Lipsky, said in a statement to MSNBC on Thursday morning. “The Congresswoman is in pain, with her arm still in a sling, but she’s otherwise doing well — just shaken up. What’s even more disheartening is watching the Left and their media allies deny this even happened, propping up misogyny instead of condemning violence.”
Mace had said her bathroom ban measure was “absolutely” written in response to Rep.-elect Sarah McBride’s becoming the first transgender person elected to Congress. Mace has also repeatedly misgendered the Delaware Democrat and publicly used a slur for transgender people, and she is selling T-shirts centered on her bathroom ban.
In her posts on X about Tuesday’s incident, the South Carolina Republican characterized it as an example of the dangers that she claims transgender people pose.
Research does not back Mace’s claims. In fact, a study from the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law found that transgender women and men were more likely to be victims of violence than their cisgender counterparts. Research published in the journal Nature Human Behavior this year also showed that state laws targeting transgender people made trans and nonbinary young people more likely to attempt suicide.
