Nancy Mace’s Bombshell House Floor Speech, Explained

Mace accused her ex-fiancé of drugging and raping her and claimed she uncovered 10,000 videos of women and girls being assaulted on Bryant’s phone.

By Kylie Cheung  |  February 11, 2025 | 3:20pm
Photo: Screenshot Politics
Nancy Mace’s Bombshell House Floor Speech, Explained

Not unlike the hit 2022 film, everything everywhere is happening all at once lately, so, in case you missed it, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) gave a pretty staggering speech on the House floor on Monday evening. Her bombshell remarks came after House votes took place and most legislators had left for the day, and… they are probably thankful they weren’t there!

In the nearly hour-long speech, which the New York Times describes as “stunningly graphic” and almost unprecedented, Mace accused her ex-fiancé, Patrick Bryant, and three other men of having drugged and sexually assaulted her and other women and minors. She claimed that, on her last night with her ex in November 2023, she went through his phone and uncovered 10,000 graphic videos of him and his associates sexually assaulting her and dozens of other women and girls.

Mace came armed with props, because of course she did. At one point, she held out handcuffs and said, “If anyone would like to arrest me for standing up for women, here are my wrists.” She displayed large, printed-out photos of the four men, and she also wore a red sticker that read “SURVIVOR,” and distributed more stickers to the small group of attendees in the gallery, including Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), Mace’s mother, and about a dozen of her supporters.

“You’ve booked yourself a one-way ticket to hell,” Mace said, addressing the four men in her characteristic, theatrical fashion. “It is nonstop. There are no connections. So I and all of your victims can watch you rot into eternity.” She refused to speak with reporters afterward and did not respond to a statement request from the Times.

Mace also saved some of her ire for South Carolina’s GOP attorney general, Alan Wilson, calling him a “do-nothing attorney general,” and claiming that he’s thus far ignored her reports and instead tried to punish her. “During the last year, as I turned everything over to law enforcement, I was told I, as a victim, would be investigated,” she said.

As you can probably imagine, a lot of people—specifically, everyone Mace named—have a lot of thoughts on all of this! “I categorically deny these allegations,” Bryant said in a statement to the Associated Press. “I take this matter seriously and will cooperate fully with any necessary legal processes to clear my name.” The Hill reports that the three other men Mace accused also denied her allegations and are considering legal action. However, the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause protects Congress members from prosecution—for things like slander—if their remarks are made “within the legislative sphere.”

Mace notably neglected to provide evidence on the House floor, though she said she has plenty she’d love to share. Nonetheless, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) confirmed that it opened an investigation “regarding allegations of assault, harassment, and voyeurism” into Bryant in December 2023.

As for Mace’s claims about Wilson, who, alongside Mace, is expected to run for governor of South Carolina in 2026: Wilson’s office also called Mace’s allegations that he ignored her reports “categorically false” and “politically motivated.”

“At this time, our office has not received any reports or requests for assistance from any law enforcement or prosecution agencies regarding these matters,” Wilson’s office said in a statement. “Additionally, the Attorney General and members of his office have had no role and no knowledge of these allegations until her public statements.”

Mace has frequently referenced her adolescent experiences with sexual abuse in an effort to frame herself as an advocate for women and survivors. Instead, unfortunately, her record has been incredibly harmful to survivors. Supporting abortion restrictions and endorsing Trump for president aside, Mace sponsored legislation that endangers immigrant survivors and has also endangered trans women under the guise of protecting cis women. In her remarks on Monday night, she pointed to her anti-trans bathroom legislation as evidence of her record of supporting survivors—but it should speak volumes that all of the people she accused of harming her and other women were cis men, not trans people. 

As for where we go from here… good question! Mace’s colleagues, sans Boebert and Luna, have largely been silent about her speech that they conspicuously did not attend. While Mace was elected to Congress in 2020 as something of a moderate, she’s taken increasingly unhinged positions and approaches to lawmaking. In 2023, she allied with Matt Gaetz to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, accusing McCarthy of insufficient advocacy for women—though I can’t quite wrap my head around why she’d expect that from a Republican in the first place. After McCarthy was successfully ousted, she wore a bright red “A” on her chest. She’s also spent the last several months harassing her trans colleague Rep. Sarah McBride of Delaware and childishly slinging anti-trans slurs and engaging in crude, infantile bathroom antics.

I’m certainly sympathetic to what Mace says she experienced. If I’d endured similar trauma while serving in Congress, I might step down to focus on healing. And the compassionate side of me hopes she’ll consider doing the same.

 
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