Epstein files floor speech and Oversight briefing (Sept. Nov. 2025)
In September 2025, Rep. Mace left an Oversight Committee briefing with Epstein victims early, describing a panic attack. On November 18, 2025, she delivered a floor speech supporting the House vote to force release of all Jeffrey Epstein files.
Rep. Nancy Mace's documented public engagement with the Jeffrey Epstein file-release effort spans two distinct moments in fall 2025.
September 2, 2025, Oversight briefing departure. Mace left a closed-door House Oversight Committee briefing with Jeffrey Epstein's victims before it concluded. That evening she posted on X explaining her early departure:
"Since it's already being reported, Yes I left the Oversight briefing with Epstein victims early. As a recent survivor (not 2 years in), I had a very difficult time listening to their stories. Full blown panic attack. Sweating. Hyperventilating. Shaking. I can't breathe."
The post came after news outlets reported on her departure from the briefing.
November 18, 2025, House floor speech and vote. On the day the House passed legislation requiring the Justice Department to release Epstein-related documents, Mace took the floor and said she wanted to "be a vessel" for survivors of sexual abuse. In her remarks she stated: "Today, we see you. This is about justice for the Epstein victims. But this is also about hope. This is about the powerless." Mace had stood as one of four Republicans who signed House Resolution 1434, the discharge petition that forced a floor vote on releasing the Epstein files.
The November 18 floor speech was covered by ABC News 4, WBUR, and Mace's own congressional press office. C-SPAN archived the remarks.
On September 2, 2025, Mace posted on X explaining she had left an Oversight Committee briefing with Epstein victims early, describing a panic attack she said was triggered by listening to their accounts.
As Mace tweeted about the Doug Band/Epstein/Clinton disclosures, @Mardabadguy replied with an AI-generated image of Mace in full Waffle House uniform, spatula raised, declaring "I know where all the waffles are being cooked", the third meme in a running series that collapses her Epstein crusade persona into her Waffle House biography.
As Nancy Mace's team explored a fast run for the Senate seat left open by Lindsey Graham's death, the sharper signal came from Trump's orbit. Politico reporter Meredith Lee Hill posted that Trump allies said they would be able to 'block Rep. Nancy Mace' from the seat, while Political Wire's excerpt framed it as blocking her from the appointment and privately pointed to her public clashes with Trump. The report landed the same morning Trump said on Meet the Press that he already had 'somebody' in mind for the vacancy, though Gov. Henry McMaster formally controls the interim appointment.
The Palmetto Voice argued that Mace's attack on a foreign-born federal judge after her fifth-place governor primary finish fits a broader pattern that includes her natural-born-only constitutional amendment, criticism of Rom Reddy, and her Trump/Epstein conflict. The outlet's 'defeated and spiraling' frame is commentary, not a Maceopedia finding.
On June 19, 2026, four days before the June 23 South Carolina Republican gubernatorial runoff, President Trump posted on Truth Social that rather than choose between the two candidates still standing, Lt. Gov. Pam Evette and Attorney General Alan Wilson, he would endorse both. He wrote that 'these were the two that I was hoping would get into a Runoff, and they did.' Neither is Nancy Mace, who finished fifth (about 12.1 percent) in the June 9 primary and has said her vote to release the Epstein files cost her Trump's support. The Washington Post had reported on June 16 that Trump was weighing exactly this dual endorsement. Post & Courier reporter Caitlin Byrd surfaced the post.
On June 18, 2026, nine days after conceding fifth place in the South Carolina Republican gubernatorial primary, Nancy Mace recirculated a clip from Tommy G's February 25, 2026 YouTube documentary on the Epstein files, paired with a post declaring a 'two-tiered system of justice' and 'no faith' that co-conspirators will ever be jailed. The clip is nearly four months old; she surfaced it days after framing her defeat as the price of her Epstein-files vote. This dispatch catalogs the posts as public artifacts and takes no position on Mace's medical or psychological state.
A post-election essay by writer Mike Broemmel, circulating on Facebook, frames Nancy Mace's fifth-place finish in the June 9, 2026 South Carolina Republican gubernatorial primary as the cumulative result of years of staff turnover, feuds and controversy, 'the cumulative effect of chaos.' Mace finished last among the major candidates with about 11 percent and did not advance to the June 23 runoff between Pamela Evette and Alan Wilson. Mace has denied the kinds of former-staff accounts the essay recycles and attributes her defeat to her vote to release the Epstein files.
After her fifth-place finish in the South Carolina Republican gubernatorial primary, Nancy Mace attributed her defeat to her vote to release the unredacted Epstein files over President Trump's objections, and marked the loss with a baked-beans photo on X, a callback to a viral 2024 meme.
On June 9, 2026, after finishing fifth with roughly 12.1 percent of the vote in the South Carolina Republican gubernatorial primary, Mace said she lost support because of her vote to release the Epstein files and called it a choice made on principle.
On CNN on June 7, 2026, days before the South Carolina governor primary, Mace said that if Trump's endorsement required her not to vote to release the Epstein files, it was "a price I am unwilling to pay."
On May 29, 2026, President Trump endorsed Mace's primary rival Pam Evette for South Carolina governor. Mace responded on X with "NO REGRETS," directly linking the endorsement snub to her vote to release the Epstein files.
On April 9, 2026, Mace publicly commended First Lady Melania Trump for her advocacy on behalf of Jeffrey Epstein survivors, a notable alignment with the Trump family even as Mace continued fighting the Justice Department over file releases.
On April 2, 2026, the day President Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi, Mace issued a statement accusing Bondi of handling the Epstein files in a "terrible manner" and stonewalling the committee's accountability efforts.
Also on March 4, 2026, the House Oversight Committee passed Mace's second subpoena, targeting records from the congressional office that paid out sexual-harassment settlements on behalf of members, though the full House later voted 357-65 to refer the matter back to the Ethics Committee, effectively killing it.
On March 4, 2026, the House Oversight Committee voted 24-19 to subpoena Attorney General Pam Bondi on Mace's motion, as Mace declared the Epstein case "one of the greatest cover-ups in American history."
The House Oversight Committee released video of Hillary Clinton's Feb. 26 deposition on March 2, 2026. Mace's questioning, including a heated exchange over Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and 9/11, drew sharply conflicting reviews, with critics saying Clinton bested Mace and Mace's own camp calling Clinton 'unhinged.'
On NewsNation on February 24, 2026, Mace said the DOJ had not released all the Epstein files and estimated the withheld material amounted to terabytes of data and potentially millions of documents.
On February 17, 2026, Mace sent a letter to CIA Director John Ratcliffe demanding disclosure of any relationship between the CIA and Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell.
On February 15, 2026, Mace posted a scathing social media thread rejecting AG Pam Bondi's claim that all Epstein files had been released, warning the issue would not go away until people were jailed.
On February 12, 2026, Mace pressed the DOJ to explain why Epstein files had been removed from its public website, warning that one accomplice could not account for thousands of victims.
On February 11, 2026, Mace said the DOJ was monitoring which Epstein files members of Congress opened and when, calling the surveillance of congressional access "creepy."
On February 11, 2026, Mace spoke out after reviewing unredacted Epstein files at the DOJ, warning that princes, former presidents, and billionaires named in the records would be held accountable.
On November 18, 2025, the House passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act 427-1. Mace, speaking on the floor, called it a historic day for survivors nationwide.
On November 13, 2025, Mace publicly confirmed she had signed the discharge petition to force release of the Epstein files, standing firm after Trump pressured Republican signers to back down.