Nancy Mace asks Jasmine Crockett if she wants to ‘take it outside’ during heated trans debate

Republican congresswoman Nancy Mace has been heavily criticised after clashing with Democrat Jasmine Crockett in a row over trans rights.

Mace, 47, suggested the pair “take it outside” after engaging in a heated debate over civil liberties with the Democratic Texan over the implementation of a subcommittee on civil rights.

During the Tuesday (14 January) debate, Crockett urged fellow members of Congress to reinstate the committee, which was dissolved in early 2023 after the Republicans took control of the House, saying she wasn’t sure how it had reached this point.

Mace, who has been a vocal opponent of trans rights over the past few months, interjected, making anti-trans claims and falsely equating trans exclusion with cisgender women’s freedom.

“You want women to be forced to undress in front of men in the locker room and in dressing rooms,” Mace said. “It’s so hypocritical for you to sit here and … be screaming from the rooftops about the right to privacy and civil rights when you don’t respect women,” she said.

“We want to talk about real freedom. Women have freedom in this country. Women have the freedom to go to a private, womens-only space and not see a man in it.”

Crockett: Somebody’s campaign coffers are struggling right now so she’s going to keep saying trans trans trans.. Child listen

Mace: I am no child! Do not call me a child. I am a grown woman. If you want to take it outside pic.twitter.com/o2EBHzcwoT

— Acyn (@Acyn) January 14, 2025

Responding, Crockett blasted Mace’s rhetoric, saying that civil rights can encompass many people and not just one demographic.

“So, she’s gonna keep saying ‘trans, trans, trans’ so that people will feel threatened, and child, listen,” Crockett said.

Interjecting, Mace told Crockett not to call her a child, saying she is a grown woman and asking if her colleague wanted to “take it outside.”

Following a call for order by committee chair James Comer, Florida Democrat, Maxwell Forst, argued that Mace had just incited violence with the comments. Mace responded saying she had a First Amendment right to say what she wants.

Comer later ruled that Mace could have asked Crockett if she wanted to “have a cup of coffee, or perhaps a beer.”

A spokesperson for Crockett, instead, told The Hill she believes it “was clear” Mace was “threatening physical violence” against Crockett.

“Congresswoman Crockett ignored her obvious, desperate baiting — if Rep. Mace wants to raise money off of the back of a qualified Black woman, she can try someone else,” they added.

In her own statement, Mace said she “wanted to take the conversation off the floor” to have what she described as “a more constructive conversation, not a fight.”

“At no point was there any intention of causing harm to anyone,” she said.