{"id":3561,"date":"2024-12-12T10:21:04","date_gmt":"2024-12-12T10:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-police-arrest-activist-accused-of-attacking-nancy-mace-as-witnesses-dispute-allegation\/"},"modified":"2024-12-12T10:21:04","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T10:21:04","slug":"capitol-police-arrest-activist-accused-of-attacking-nancy-mace-as-witnesses-dispute-allegation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-police-arrest-activist-accused-of-attacking-nancy-mace-as-witnesses-dispute-allegation\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol Police arrest activist accused of attacking Nancy Mace, as witnesses dispute allegation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-testid=\"byline-container\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.msnbc.com\/author\/clarissa-jan-lim-ncpn1307846\"><picture data-testid=\"picture\"><source media=\"(min-width: 320px)\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_focal-60x60,f_auto,q_auto:best\/newscms\/2024_08\/3635688\/clarissa-jan-lim-msnbc.png\" alt height=\"48\" width=\"48\"><\/source><\/picture><\/a><\/div>\n<div>\n<p class>A man accused of assaulting Rep.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.msnbc.com\/opinion\/msnbc-opinion\/nancy-mace-anti-trans-lgbtq-sarah-mcbride-rcna180884\" target=\"_blank\"> Nancy Mace<\/a>R-S.C., on Capitol Hill was arrested Tuesday night, U.S. Capitol Police said.<\/p>\n<p class>The man was identified as James McIntyre, 33, of Illinois, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/congress\/police-arrest-suspect-accused-assaulting-nancy-mace-capitol-grounds-rcna183716\" target=\"_blank\">NBC News reported<\/a>. He is charged with assaulting a government official.<\/p>\n<p class>Mace, who has faced criticism for introducing a bill to ban transgender women from using the women&rsquo;s restrooms at the U.S. Capitol, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NancyMace\/status\/1866659978108617037\" target=\"_blank\">wrote on X<\/a> that she had been &ldquo;physically accosted&rdquo; by a man advocating for trans rights. Capitol Police said a House member&rsquo;s office had reported an incident in the Rayburn House Office Building.<\/p>\n<p class>&ldquo;One new brace for my wrist and some ice for my arm and it&rsquo;ll heal just fine,&rdquo; she added.<\/p>\n<p class>Capitol Police did not offer any details about McIntyre to NBC News. Three witnesses with McIntyre&rsquo;s foster care advocacy group <a href=\"https:\/\/imprintnews.org\/top-stories\/nancy-mace-calls-police-prominent-foster-youth-advocate\/256826\" target=\"_blank\">told The Imprint <\/a>that Mace and McIntyre merely shook hands and that he made a comment about the number of transgender youths in foster care who &ldquo;need your support.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p class>The Washington Post later <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2024\/12\/11\/assault-nancy-mace-congress-arrest\/\" target=\"_blank\">similarly reported<\/a> that witnesses said the encounter was not physically aggressive. Elliott Hinkle, a foster care advocate from Wyoming, told the Post: <\/p>\n<section>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&ldquo;What we witnessed was a handshake, a passionate shake, but it didn&rsquo;t look like an assault or intended aggression,&rdquo; Hinkle said of the several people he said saw the encounter. He said McIntyre told Mace: &ldquo;Trans youth are also foster youth, and they need your support.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><small><span><\/span><\/small><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/section>\n<p class>Mace&rsquo;s office did not immediately respond to BLN&rsquo;s request for comment Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class>It&rsquo;s unclear what exactly transpired in the exchange; whether there is video of the incident is unclear. Mace appeared to dispute the witnesses&rsquo; characterization of the incident, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RepNancyMace\/status\/1866948578398310651\" target=\"_blank\">writing on X<\/a>: &ldquo;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.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p class>Mace had said her bathroom ban measure was &ldquo;absolutely&rdquo; written in response to Rep.-elect Sarah McBride&rsquo;s becoming the first transgender person elected to Congress. Mace has also repeatedly misgendered the Delaware Democrat and publicly used <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/news-and-politics\/2024\/12\/nancy-mace-slur-transgender-bathroom-bill.html\" target=\"_blank\">a slur for transgender people<\/a>and she is <a href=\"https:\/\/secure.winred.com\/team-mace\/20241121-merch-comeandtakeit?amount=35\" target=\"_blank\">selling T-shirts<\/a> centered on her bathroom ban.<\/p>\n<p class>In her posts on X about Tuesday&rsquo;s incident, the South Carolina Republican characterized it as an example of the dangers that she claims transgender people pose. <\/p>\n<p class>Research does not back Mace&rsquo;s claims. In fact, a study from the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law found that transgender women and men were <a href=\"https:\/\/williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu\/press\/ncvs-trans-press-release\/\" target=\"_blank\">more likely to be victims of violence<\/a> 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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/nbc-out\/out-news\/anti-trans-laws-suicide-attempts-teens-increase-rcna172906\" target=\"_blank\">more likely to attempt suicide<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-activity-map=\"expanded-byline-article-bottom\">\n<div data-testid=\"byline-thumbnail\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.msnbc.com\/author\/clarissa-jan-lim-ncpn1307846\"><picture data-testid=\"picture\"><source media=\"(min-width: 320px)\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_focal-60x60,f_auto,q_auto:best\/newscms\/2024_08\/3635688\/clarissa-jan-lim-msnbc.png\" alt height=\"48\" width=\"48\"><\/source><\/picture><\/a><\/div>\n<p><span data-testid=\"byline-name\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.msnbc.com\/author\/clarissa-jan-lim-ncpn1307846\">Clarissa-Jan Lim<\/a><\/span><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking\/trending news blogger for BLN Digital. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.msnbc.com\/top-stories\/latest\/nancy-mace-police-suspect-attack-capitol-handshake-rcna183767\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A man accused of assaulting Rep. Nancy MaceR-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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trump"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}