There is an old expression … “if you’re catching flak, you’re over the target.”
Well, South Carolina state representative Nancy Mace is catching some serious flak from an anonymous social media account – one that got disturbingly personal in its efforts to discredit her.
A day after Mace scored a major victory in the S.C. House of Representatives – securing exemptions for rape and incest victims as part of a proposed fetal heartbeat bill – the 41-year-old was put “on blast” by a particularly venomous Twitter account.
The Twitter user(s) – who go(es) by the handle “Nancy Mace Is A Disgrace” – launched into a multi-tweet tirade on Thursday afternoon, blasting the Lowcountry legislator on a host of fronts. One of them? Her former proximity to this news outlet and its admittedly controversial founding editor, Will Folks.
Mace was a former co-owner of FITSNews, but sold her interest in the outlet prior to mounting a campaign for the U.S. Senate in 2014. At no time did she have any editorial control over our content – and obviously no one has ever been able to control Folks, who has long relished his role as a “bad boy” in Palmetto politics.
Anyway, the “Will Folks” line of attack against Mace has pretty well played itself out over the years, but this particular attacker went back to that well in a most bizarre way – alleging in multiple tweets that Mace “fabricated a sex scandal” involving former South Carolina governor/ U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Nikki Haley.
These tweets appear to be in reference to our founding editor’s 2010 acknowledgement of an “inappropriate physical relationship” with Haley – which took place (actually, not allegedly) in the late winter/ early spring of 2007.
To be perfectly clear: Mace had no foreknowledge of that revelation.
So whether you believed Folks, believed Haley or (like most people) didn’t care one way or the other – the fact remainsMace had nothing to do with it.
From there, though, the attacks got much more personal … and frankly, reprehensible. In one tweet – which tagged U.S. congressman Joe Cunningham and reporter Caitlin Byrd of The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier – Mace’s online assailant asked whether anyone had “asked (her) if she’s had an abortion.”
Meanwhile, another downright deplorable tweet referenced speculation about a breast augmentation procedure.
Also, the Twitter troll made a bizarre claim that Mace was somehow linked to the thoroughly debunked contention that members of the 2016 campaign of U.S. president Donald Trump colluded with Russian interests during the most recent presidential election.
Specifically, it claimed Mace “was investigated because of her ties to Russia.”
Ridiculous …
We have no idea who is behind this account or what is motivating their visceral hatred for Mace. Most likely, the attacks are tied in some form or fashion to the Lowcountry lawmaker’s prospective campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives in the upcoming election cycle.
As we have noted previously, Mace is one of the frontrunners to capture the GOP nomination for the first congressional district in 2020 – and our guess is this bombardment is somehow related to that race.
Or, maybe not. It could be the work of a genuinely unhinged liberal – someone angry at Mace for staking out some common sense ground in the contentious (and usually pointless) debate over abortion at the S.C. State House.
Hell, maybe it is Haley herself …
Who knows …
All we know is that deeply personal attacks like these are well outside the bounds of acceptable discourse. And whoever is behind them – and behind these – should be ashamed of themselves.
It is one thing to spread deliberate, demonstrable falsehoods. Hell, in most hyperbolic, “all in” political debates every other syllable is a deliberate, demonstrable falsehood.
But this particular critic clearly crossed a line …
This news outlet does not always agree with Mace. And frankly, we have not decided whether we would support her in the event she were to become a candidate for congress in 2020 (although we like what we have seen of her so far during her brief tenure in the S.C. House).
We will, however, defend her – and anyone – who is subjected to unfair and inappropriate criticism from faceless cowards like the author(s) of the “Nancy Mace Is A Disgrace” Twitter page.
-FITSNews
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1 comment
Hahaha you get what you deserve when you’re a know nothing cunt