A suspect has been arrested after Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina claimed that she was assaulted.
“I was physically accosted tonight on Capitol grounds over my fight to protect women,” she wrote on X on Tuesday night. “Capitol police have arrested him. All the violence and threats keep proving our point. Women deserve to be safe. Your threats will not stop my fight for women!”
U.S. Capitol Police said they had detained an individual accused of assaulting a lawmaker. The police didn’t mention the Republican House member in their statement, although they did say that the office of a member of Congress reported an incident shortly before 6pm in the Rayburn House Office Building.
“House Division officers, and agents with the Threat Assessment Section, tracked down the suspect,” police said.
The suspect has been named as James McIntyre, a 33-year-old from Illinois, who faces a charge of assaulting a government official.
Police said that the Rayburn building was open to the public when the incident took place and that McIntyre went through a security screening before he went inside the building.
Mace has been embroiled in controversy since she introduced a bill banning transgender women from using women’s restrooms on Capitol Hill. She has been the target of criticism from LGBT+ advocates because of the legislation, but she has argued that she introduced it as a way to ensure the safety of women.
Sarah McBride of Delaware, a Democrat and the first transgender person elected to Congress, has become a target of Republicans such as Mace who argue that her use of restrooms in the Capitol would be equivalent to assault.
The Republicans are targeting a group of people making up just 1.6 percent of U.S. adults, according to the Pew Research Center.
The center found in 2022 that 64 percent of Americans support policies that protect transgender people from discrimination when it comes to jobs, housing, as well as in public spaces such as stores and restaurants.
