Nancy Mace has shown off her injured arm after a trans activist allegedly “aggressively” shook her hand.
The Republican congresswoman posted a selfie to social media site X, showing her right arm in a sling and what appeared to be a compression bandage wrapped around her hand.
“Just sitting here with your run-of-the-mill gentle ‘normal handshake,’” she said.
On Wednesday she claimed James McIntyre, whom she described as a “pro-trans man”, had held her hand in place as she attempted to pull away from him, injuring her wrist and shoulder. It came after her attempts to ban biological men from women’s bathrooms in Congress.
However, a witness claimed that Mr McIntyre had a “pretty normal interaction” with the South Carolina representative at the event on Tuesday.
Mr McIntyre was arrested on Tuesday evening following the interaction, which took place at a reception at Capitol Hill’s Rayburn House Building, and pleaded not guilty to charges of assaulting a government official the following day.
Ms Mace told police that the 33-year-old “aggressively and in an exaggerated manner [shook] her arm up and down”, and was “held in place” as she attempted to pull her hand away.
‘Pain in wrists, arm and shoulder’
Ms Mace, whose account was backed up by two witnesses, said she suffered pain in her wrists, arm and shoulder as a consequence of the handshake, but refused help from paramedics.
A responding officer noted that she was holding her right arm close to her body and offered her left hand for a handshake.
However, another witness, Elliott Hinkle, told The Hill: “James [McIntyre] met her by the door where people could see her and him to say, ‘trans youth are in foster care and they need your support,’ and gave a handshake and then walked back to his seat and sat down”.
It seemed like a “pretty normal interaction”, he added.
Mr Hinkle, a consultant on “youth mental health and the LGBTQIA2S+ community” who uses “they/them” pronouns, accused Ms Mace of misrepresenting the interaction and “misusing power for her benefit”.
“I’m incredibly sad and disheartened for my colleague,” he said in a post on LinkedIn, apparently referring to Mr McIntyre, and claimed that the media had “wildly exaggerated” the story.
Ms Mace also spoke of the case on social media, writing: “I was physically accosted tonight on Capitol grounds over my fight to protect women. Capitol police have arrested him.
“All the violence and threats keep proving our point. Women deserve to be safe.”