Newly seated Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) said Sunday that President Trump “put all of our lives at risk” with his rhetoric before the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol.
Mace made the comment while discussing a bipartisan effort to censure Trump, which she said Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had overruled in favor of impeaching Trump a second time.
“With censure, that was one of the things that I believe we should have had up for debate. It’s complex, constitutionally, but there were folks in both chambers and in both parties having the ability to look at that as an option, but we couldn’t even bring it up for debate or look at that as an option because we were really trying hard to figure out how do we hold a president accountable that put all of our lives at risk?” she said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
Mace called the riots “a traumatic event for many members of Congress” and predicted more disturbing details about it would continue to come to light.
“We feared for our lives, many of us that day and our staff. And, as you know, my children were supposed to be up there,” she said. “And if they had been there like they were supposed to be, I would have been devastated. And so we do need to find a way to hold the president accountable.”
Host Chuck Todd asked for her response to the majority of House Republicans, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and Minority Whip Steve Scalise (La.), still voting to object to the results of the election in key states after the riot.
“I will tell you for me, as a new member, it was enormously disappointing. I literally had to walk through a crime scene where that young woman was shot and killed to get into the chamber to vote that night to certify what was supposed to be a ceremonial vote to certify the Electoral College,” she said. “And yet my colleagues continued to object, and they knew this was a failing motion.”