Nancy Mace blasts George Stephanopoulos for ‘shaming’ rape victim

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., accused ABC News’ “This Morning” anchor George Stephanopoulos of shaming her as a rape victim when he grilled her about her support for former President Donald Trump on Sunday.

Stephanopoulos, who served as White House communications director under former President Bill Clinton, played a 2019 video of Mace talking about her position on a fetal heartbeat bill in South Carolina from the perspective of someone who was raped when she was a teenager.

Stephanopoulos then asked Mace to explain how she could support Trump when he had been “found liable for rape” in the civil trial between Trump and E. Jean Carroll, who accused him of sexually assaulting her and sued him for defamation.

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Mace pushed back against Stephanopoulos, accusing him of attempting to use a traumatic part of her past to shame her for her political views.

I was brought on to talk about 2024…instead Clinton crony turned fake journalist @Gstephanopoulos attacked me and tried to shame me as a rape victim.

Gross.@ThisWeekABCpic.twitter.com/9uNhypsZdO

— Nancy Mace (@NancyMace) March 10, 2024

“Well, I will tell you, I was raped at the age of 16, and any rape victim will tell you, I’ve lived for 30 years with an incredible amount of shame over being raped. I didn’t come forward because of that judgment and shame that I felt,” she said.

“And it’s a shame that you will never feel, George, and I’m not going to sit here on your show and be asked a question meant to shame me about another potential rape victim. I’m not going to do that,” she continued.

The two went back and forth for some time, with Stephanopoulos maintaining that he was not intending to shame Mace, who repeatedly pushed back and characterized his questions as “disgusting.”

“I live with shame,” she said. “And you’re asking me a question about my political choices, trying to shame me as a rape victim. And I find it disgusting.”

She also noted that Trump had not been found liable for rape in a criminal court case regarding Carroll, whom she criticized for joking with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC that that she was going to go shopping and buy a penthouse with the $83 million payout from the defamation suit.

She added that when women like Carroll make light-hearted comments about rape, it makes it harder for other women to come forward with their stories.

“I find it offensive, as a rape victim, that you’re trying to shame me for my political choices, and as I’ve said again repeatedly, E. Jean Carroll has made a mockery out of rape by joking about it,” Mace said. “Rape is not funny.”

Stephanopoulos later pivoted to ask Mace why she was willing to throw her support behind Trump after having been so fiercely critical of him in the wake of the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

Mace replied that in listening to her constituents in South Carolina, she came to realize that “they’ve moved beyond January 6.”

“Voters held him accountable through our Republican primaries this year. He’s won overwhelmingly,” she said. Mace endorsed Trump over former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who dropped out of the race last week after Trump swept most of the delegates on Super Tuesday. Trump has also since endorsed Mace.

Mace reserved harsher language for Stephanopolous after the interview when she laced into Stephanopoulos on X for his line of questioning.

“I was asked to speak on 2024 today, NOT my own rape,” Mace wrote. “I’ve carried this shame for 30 years, a shame George Stephanopolous will never know. I don’t need [Stephanopoulos] ‘mansplaining’ rape to me or shaming me on national TV for being a survivor of rape.”

She also hit out at Stephanopoulos by calling him a “Clinton crony turned fake journalist” and that he “looked like a horses [sic] ass who hates women, especially rape victims.”

Mace also retweeted Juanita Broaddrick, who wrote, “You’re not alone, Nancy. He did it to me, too, when he was Bill Clinton’s mouthpiece.”

Broaddrick alleged that Clinton raped her in her hotel room on April 25, 1978, when he was attorney general of Arkansas and she was a campaign volunteer. Clinton has denied the allegation.