Mace vs. Mace: she called AOC's Jan. 6 account 'fiction,' but her own words called that same day 'a very dangerous situation' where 'lives were put at risk'
In February 2021 Nancy Mace smeared Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's account of January 6 as 'fiction' and said AOC 'doesn't deal in reality.' MSNBC's Mehdi Hasan pulled the receipts: Mace's own contemporaneous words called that same day 'a very dangerous situation' where 'lives were put at risk,' said she barricaded her office, and told a local station she would carry a gun on Capitol Hill.
"I live in reality. I deal with facts and not fiction... And she lost it today. She doesn't deal in reality."
Rep. Nancy Mace, on Fox News, February 2, 2021, attacking Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's account of the January 6 Capitol attack.
This juxtaposition was assembled by Mehdi Hasan on MSNBC's "All In with Chris Hayes" in February 2021. Hasan set Mace's attack on AOC beside Mace's own on-camera words from the day after the riot. Credit for the original reporting and side-by-side belongs to Hasan and MSNBC; the clip below is an edited, captioned excerpt of that segment.
Maceopedia edit of the MSNBC "All In" segment (Mehdi Hasan), February 2021.
What Mace said about AOC
On February 1, 2021, Ocasio-Cortez described in an Instagram Live video how frightened she had been during the January 6 attack, when a rioter mob breached the Capitol complex. Conservative media moved to cast her account as exaggerated because her office building was near, not inside, the breached Capitol. Mace joined in. She tweeted, "I'm two doors down from AOC and no insurrectionists stormed our hallway," attached to a Fox News article about AOC facing backlash, and then went on Fox News that afternoon:
"And all I did was state the facts. I live in reality. I deal with facts and not fiction. And I said that there were no rioters in the hallways of Cannon. I'm two doors down from you. And she lost it today. She doesn't deal in reality... I think it's really important that we take members to task when they're not being honest with the American people."
Nancy Mace on Fox News, February 2, 2021. The "Yesterday / Fox News" chyron in the MSNBC segment dates the interview.
What Mace said about herself
Here is the record Hasan then laid alongside it. In the middle of the riot on January 6, Mace tweeted that she was evacuating her office in the Cannon building "due to a nearby threat." The next morning, January 7, she went on ABC's "GMA3" and described the danger she felt she was in:
"At one point when we were evacuated because of the bomb threat, the pipe bomb threat, I was stuck in a narrow tunnel with 100 other people, staff and members of Congress. It was a very dangerous situation. Lives were put at risk."
Nancy Mace on ABC "GMA3," January 7, 2021. The "January 7 / ABC" chyron in the MSNBC segment dates the interview.
Mace gave more detail to a South Carolina newspaper that day. According to the reporting cited in the segment, she said she barricaded herself inside her office during the attack, fearing that Trump supporters she had seen staying at her hotel might target her. After she voted to certify the electoral votes, she said she decided to sleep in her office that night. She told a local news station she intended to carry a gun on Capitol Hill, saying, "I will not be put in that situation again."
The payoff
Hasan drew the two together. First he noted a factual point: AOC never claimed there were insurrectionists in her own hallway. Then he set Mace's fear against Mace's mockery:
"So to be clear, Nancy Mace wants to carry a gun and barricaded herself in her office. But AOC is lying about and exaggerating the threat. These people are shameful."
Mehdi Hasan, MSNBC "All In," February 2021.
The words are hers, from the public record, two days apart. On January 7, 2021, Nancy Mace called January 6 "a very dangerous situation" where "lives were put at risk," said she barricaded her office, and said she would carry a gun on Capitol Hill. Weeks later, when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez described her own fear that same day, Mace called that account "fiction" and said AOC "doesn't deal in reality." Readers can watch both and judge.
Sources & related coverage: MSNBC "All In with Chris Hayes," Mehdi Hasan: "Shameful: Mehdi Hasan slams Nancy Mace for hypocrisy attacking AOC's credibility" (Feb. 2021, via ms.now) · ABC "GMA3," Jan. 7, 2021 (Mace interview, as aired in the MSNBC segment) · Fox News, Feb. 2, 2021 (Mace interview, as aired in the MSNBC segment) · Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Instagram Live, Feb. 1, 2021 | Nancy Mace wiki · People index
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