U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, a Republican candidate for South Carolina governor, verbally berated a police officers a TSA agents at Charleston International Airport on Thursday morning as she was preparing to fly out of the airport, according to a police report.
The Charleston County Aviation Authority Police Department report and surveillance footage was released Friday afternoon by airport footages after requests from the media.
Mace flew out of Charleston on a 7:30 a.m. flight. As a member of Congress, she is escorted through airport security screenings at TSA checkpoints.
Members of Congress go through the screening process, such as walking through a metal detector and having their bags checked through an X-ray machine. But they also may coordinate with local security personnel at the airport to be escorted through security to allow them to go through the process in a smoother fashion.
According to the airport police report written by officers Aaron Reed and Earnest Southers, Mace was scheduled to meet police officers at 6:30 a.m. at the ticketing vestibule. Officers said they were told she would arrive in a white BMW. The officers were then told she was running 10 to 15 minutes late.
Mace’s campaign early Friday evening shared a text message sent to Charleston airport security on Wednesday saying she would be dropped off curbside in a silver BMW.
Surveillance footage shows Mace arrived in a gray or silver vehicle at 6:51 a.m. She looked around the passenger drop off area before leaving the vehicle and walking to the terminal. Mace then walked to the TSA security checkpoint and waited for several minutes at an entrance used by crew members before three airport police officers arrived to escort her to the boarding area for her flight to Chicago.
“During the escort, Rep. Mace was talking loudly using profanity at times for others to hear,” the police report says. “It appeared she was either dictating a message into her phone or talking to someone about the situation.”
In a separate memo written by Reed to a police lieutenant, Reed says Mace was “loudly cursing and making derogatory comments to us and about the department.”
“She repeatedly stated we were ‘F*****g incompetent’ and ‘this is no way to treat a f*****g U.S. Representative.’ She also said we would never treat (U.S. Sen.) Tim Scott like this,” Reed’s memo continues. “The entire walk to gate B-8, she was cursing and complaining and often doing the same into her phone.”
Mace continued tirade while waiting for several minutes before boarding her flight, the police report says.
According to Reed, a TSA supervisor stated Mace spoke to several TSA agents in the same manor and “he was very upset with how she acted at the checkpoint.”
The TSA agent also planned to submit a report to his superiors, at a time when TSA agents are not being paid because of the ongoing federal government shut down.
“Any other person at the airport acting and talking the way she did, our department would have been dispatch(ed) and we would have addressed the behavior,” Reed wrote.
Cameron Morabito, Mace’s director of operations, later released a statement.
“We are forced to take the congresswoman’s safety extremely seriously,” Morabito said. “After the world watched Charlie Kirk’s assassination, the threats against her have only intensified. Our security procedures are based solely on legitimate safety concerns, and any attempt to politicize this reality is both dangerous and reckless.”
But Mace posted on social media before police report was released.
“Am hearing the ‘rumor’ is TSA wouldn’t let me through. This is false. And is a silly rumor,” Mace posted at 1:38 p.m.
In a post at 4:39 p.m. on X, Mace said “And for the fake news: This is the entrance ALL Members of Congress use at the airport.”
This story was originally published October 31, 2025 at 4:29 PM.
Joseph Bustos is a state government and politics reporter at The State. He’s a Northwestern University graduate and previously worked in Illinois covering government and politics. He has won reporting awards in both Illinois and Missouri. He moved to South Carolina in November 2019 and won the Jim Davenport Award for Excellence in Government Reporting for his work in 2022.
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