"Just a ploy for media attention": Ex-aide says Mace's anti-trans tirade a stunt to get on Fox News

Mace's ex-communications director called her out for “tweeting 262 times" about trans bathroom bill in 36 hours

By Griffin Eckstein

News Fellow

Published November 21, 2024 11:24AM (EST)

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., stops to speak to a TV crew as she arrives for the House Republican Conference caucus meeting in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, September 10, 2024. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., stops to speak to a TV crew as she arrives for the House Republican Conference caucus meeting in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, September 10, 2024. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

For Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., the cruelty of her new anti-trans diatribe against Rep.-elect Sarah McBride is just the means to an end: getting on TV, her former aide alleged on social media.

Natalie Johnson, Mace’s former director of communications, took to X to question the motives of Mace’s bill to ban trans women from women’s restrooms in the House before McBride, the first transgender member of Congress, is set to take office.

“If you think this bill is about protecting women and not simply a ploy to get on Fox News, you've been fooled,” she wrote.

The ex-staffer poked fun at the sheer volume of anti-trans tweets Mace posted over the potential use of a restroom by one individual congresswoman while simultaneously ignoring a former colleague’s child sexual abuse investigation.

“Tweeting 262 times about a bill that applies to like .00000001% of Congress in 36 hours is definitely about protecting women. It’s certainly not just a ploy for media attention,” Johnson joked. 

“‘Protecting women’ in Congress would be introducing a bill to bar Matt Gaetz, a sexual predator with an affinity for underage girls, from ever walking those halls again, rather than dropping a messaging bill that’s sole goal is getting on TV,” she added in another post to X.

Mace, set to begin her third term in the House in January, spent her day on Wednesday trolling Senate Democrats who offered up restroom use to McBride, and a transgender state lawmaker in Montana, who she implied was not a woman.

McBride on Wednesday called the rule's inclusion an effort to “distract” from other issues, while Mace clarified the policy was “absolutely” an effort to discriminate against McBride directly.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., confirmed that Mace’s anti-trans rules package was included on Wednesday, Transgender Day of Remembrance.


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