MSM Recycle Nancy Mace ‘Drinking Game’ Video

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If at first you don’t succeed, leak, leak again…

That would appear to be the logic employed by political opponents of Nancy Mace, an up-and-coming congresswoman from South Carolina who – depending on which theory you believe – is either running for governor of the Palmetto State or challenging its warmongering senior senator, Lindsey Graham, in the next election cycle.

Mace has been riding a wave of national momentum after she adeptly forced Democrats in Washington, D.C. to double down on the woke trans fad – a divisive issue that cost them bigly at the polls in last month’s national election.

Specifically, Mace introduced legislation which would bar biological males from using “women’s spaces, women’s bathrooms, locker rooms” and “changing rooms” at the U.S. Capitol.

“If someone with a penis is in the women’s locker room, that’s not okay,” Mace told reporters recently. “I’m a rape survivor… I know how vulnerable women and girls are.”

Mace’s advocacy on the bathroom bill prompted U.S. speaker Mike Johnson to adopt her legislation as a rule. It also catapulted her to the forefront of the national post-election conversation – while earning her plaudits from social conservative GOP primary voters in the Palmetto State.

As her profile expanded, Mace indicated she expected to become a target – but made it abundantly clear the looming broadsides wouldn’t slow her roll one bit.

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“Whole teams of people working night and day to dig up dirt or salacious things about my past, or media publishing lies and fabricated stories are NEVER going to stop me,” she wrote on X last week. “I have a job to do. I will not be bullied. I will not be intimidated. And I will not back down.”

“Keep slinging arrows my way,” Mace added. “I can take it.”

This week, The (U.K.) Daily Mail obliged – publishing an “exclusive” about Mace being caught on video “in a gross act with two women and a man.”

Yeah… you think that headline drew some clicks?

“Her crusade against transgender bathroom access has cemented her role as a hardline culture warrior and MAGA favorite,” the British tabloid pearl-clutchingly reported. “But an eye-popping video unearthed exclusively by DailyMail.com suggests that (Mace) wasn’t always as uptight about personal boundaries.”

The “lurid” and “stomach-churning” act which the Mail claimed to have “exclusively unearthed” is, of course, quite familiar to Palmetto State audiences. It’s the same eight-year-old footage that’s been recycled every time Mace has run for elected office dating back to 2017.

The Mail no more “unearthed” this clip than former vice president Al Gore invented the internet…

Commonly referred to in Palmetto political circles as the “drinking game” video, the clip depicts Mace and three friends playing “baby bird” – a.k.a. “momma bird” – an admittedly less-than-sanitary exercise in which one person takes a shot of alcohol and endeavors to pass it on to the next party-goer by mouth.

(Click to view)

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Contrary to the Mail‘s “exclusive” claims, the video in question was uploaded to Twitter on November 23, 2017 – five days before Mace thrashed state representative Mark Smith, an intimate of former governor Nikki Haley, in a GOP State House runoff election.

Despite primary voters being completely unmoved by the video, Mace’s Democrat opponent Cindy Boatwright continued to make hay over it in the general election – claiming the “shocking” clip demonstrated Mace’s “immaturity, irresponsibility and lack of fitness for public office.”

Once again, voters didn’t care – sending Mace to the State House over Boatwright with 57 percent of the vote on January 16, 2018.

The video resurfaced nearly two years later ahead of Mace’s first congressional campaign – which saw her win a hard-fought GOP primary en route to defeating incumbent Democrat congressman Joe Cunningham. In that race, the clip was salaciously touted as a “bisexual video” in a shadowy out-of-state phone message sent to thousands of GOP primary voters.

Voters’ response to the clip this go-round? Another collective eye-roll… as I noted at the time.

“Barring something seismic we don’t know about, Mace’s #PartyGate video is unlikely to hurt her 2020 ambitions – particularly in a general election showdown against Cunningham,” I wrote.

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With the video making the rounds across the Palmetto Lowcountry, Mace went on to win her contested GOP primary – and subsequently ousted Cunningham from his congressional seat.

During the 2022 cycle, Mace faced an even steeper path to victory. After some ill-advised comments following the January 6 rioting at the U.S. Capitol, the newly minted incumbent drew a Republican primary challenger endorsed by Donald Trump. After a hard-fought victory in that primary race, she handily beat back a credible, well-funded Democrat opponent – pediatrician Annie Andrews – in the November election.

In each of those contests the video resurfaced – once again to minimal effect.

This year, Mace faced another existential threat – an effort by GOP house speaker Kevin McCarthy to take her out for failing to toe the party line. Mace enraged the Washington swamp last fall when she joined seven other GOP lawmakers in voting to oust McCarthy. Her response to the Haterade? She wore a scarlet letter to the U.S. Capitol. Prior to the McCarthy drama, Mace went against GOP leaders on a vote to raise the debt ceiling – and rebuked them on a spending bill which contained mass amnesty provisions.

For her disloyalty to the status quo, Mace faced yet another credible, well-funded primary challenge – and fresh leaks of the video. Once again… no one cared.

Anyone spotting the trend?

While the Mail‘s hyperventilating, sanctimonious “reveal” of the video was short on credibility and objectivity, it has nonetheless succeeded in elevating the clip to a much higher energy level. That means Mace will have to deal with it again – and deal with it for the first time nationally and in certain parts of the Palmetto State where she has never campaigned before.

Will the video finally serve it intended purpose and drag down her upward trajectory? We shall see… but if Mace has proven anything since the clip was originally released seven years ago it’s this: She doesn’t shy away from fights. If anything, she goes looking for them.

And wins them…

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.

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