Rep. Nancy Mace says ‘motherly instinct’ prompted her to get kids out of DC before attack

Over the weekend newly-elected single mother Rep. Nancy Mace (R) and her two children arrived in the nation’s capital after flying in from South Carolina. Mace planned to have her kids stay with her in DC for her first week of work, but quickly decided to change plans.

“I sent them home because my motherly instinct said ‘this doesn’t feel right’, something’s going to happen because of the rhetoric,” she explained during an appearance on CNN Tonight with Don Lemon.

The interview came hours after after an armed and violent mob attacked the Capitol building.

The congresswoman says she initially thought it would be cool for her kids to stay in Washington for a week since they are doing virtual school anyway due to COVID-19. That way they could see their mother—the first Republican woman elected to Congress from the state of South Carolina—be sworn in while doing remotely completing their classes from her congressional office.

But on Wednesday night she told Don Lemon she put her kids “on the first flight out of town Monday morning” because rhetoric she was hearing from “fringe members of [her] own party” was frightening her.

In an earlier interview with CBS News, she said “I was worried about what I was seeing and hearing and the consequence of the words, of the rhetoric. And I warned my colleagues about this, and sadly it came to fruition today.”

Even before the sitting President Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol, Mace was certain that sending her kids home was the right choice.

“I have been violently threatened on social media over the course of the last week, I was accosted last night on a street in DC,” Mace explained in an earlier interview with CBS News on Wednesday, adding that the person who approached her had driven up from her district with then intention of protesting President-elect Biden’s win. “The individual was upset because I was not going to object to certification of the electoral college.”

Kids just FaceTimed me again to make sure mommy is OK. I put them on the first flight home Monday morning because I… https://t.co/PWWYL0exMc

— Rep. Nancy Mace (@RepNancyMace)
1609977998.0

Mace has made it very clear that while she previously supported President Trump—working for him, voting for him and remaining “grateful for his support in her own election”—and while she believes he should have won the election, she planned to cast her vote to certify the results of the Electoral College.

After the chaos at the Capitol on Wednesday, she tweeted: “Kids just FaceTimed me again to make sure mommy is OK. I put them on the first flight home Monday morning because I was worried something like this might happen. Rhetoric has real consequences. So grateful my mama instincts kicked in and they weren’t here.”

One woman died after in the violence at the Capitol. It is such a good thing that Mace’s children were not there. And it’s a good thing that there are so many mothers on both sides of the aisle who believe in democracy. We need more “motherly instinct” in politics.