Reps. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) and Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) got into a heated exchange during a Tuesday Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing and discussion about civil rights and transgender rights that ended with Mace suggesting the two could “take it outside.”
Crockett asked her fellow members to reinstate the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, which was disbanded in early 2023 after the GOP took control of the House. Mace responded by highlighting her ongoing discourse about transgender women using women’s restrooms.
Mace, the former ranking member on the subcommittee, said she cares about civil rights and civil liberties. She slammed the Democratic Party for its inclusive rhetoric about transgender women, often using harsh and offensive language.
“You want women to be forced to undress in front of men in the locker room and in dressing rooms, and it’s so hypocritical for you to sit here and … be screaming from the rooftops about the right to privacy and civil rights when you don’t respect women,” Mace said.
Mace, a survivor of rape who is vocal about her experience, argued transgender women use women’s locker rooms and bathrooms with the intent to sexually assault or rape women.
“We want to talk about real freedom. Women have freedom in this country. Women have the freedom to go to a private, women’s-only space and not see a man in it,” she said, later adding that Crockett should not “come over here with your attitude and talk to me about rights when you’re trying to take my rights as a woman, a rape survivor, away.”
Crockett said she wasn’t sure how the committee reached this point because she intended to highlight in her remarks how civil rights can encompass many people and not just one demographic.
“So, she’s gonna keep saying ‘trans, trans trans’ so that people will feel threatened, and child, listen,” Crockett said.
Mace interjected, yelling she is “no child” and for the Texas Democrat to not call her that. The South Carolina Republican said she was a grown woman and asked Crockett if she wanted “to take it outside.”
Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) called for order, and Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) attempted to defend Crockett, asking if members could incite violence in the committee. Mace said she has the First Amendment right to say what she wants.
Comer later ruled that Mace was asking if Crockett wanted to step outside, which could mean they would go have a “cup of coffee, or perhaps a beer.”
But a spokesperson for Crockett argued that “it was clear” that Mace was “threatening physical violence against” Crockett, adding that this is why the House Oversight Committee needs to pass her amendment to reinstate the subcommittee.
“Congresswoman Crockett ignored her obvious, desperate baiting — if Rep. Mace wants to raise money off of the back of a qualified Black woman, she can try someone else,” Crockett’s spokesperson told The Hill.
In a statement, Mace said there was a lot of speculation about her intentions during the heated exchange earlier Tuesday.
“Let me be clear: I wanted to take the conversation off the floor to have a more constructive conversation, not to fight. At no point was there any intention of causing harm to anyone,” Mace’s statement said.
She added that she will not be “bullied into submission” and not be called names like she was in the hearing.
The argument began after House Republicans passed a bill that would ban transgender athletes from girls’ sports. The bill would amend Title IX, the federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in schools and educational programs that receive government funding.
Both lawmakers posted online, with Crockett reiterating her remark. She posted “chile….,” and Mace posted on the social platform X numerous times about the exchange.
