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Like an unmanageable forest fire, the acrimonious war of words between U.S. congresswoman Nancy Mace and her former fiancé – Charleston, S.C. entrepreneur Patrick Bryant – has burned hot, high, far and wide.
The couple’s cacophonous 2023 break-up has spawned downright incendiary allegations – including claims of rape and other depravities leveled by Mace from the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives (and which are now unfolding against the backdrop of her upcoming campaign for the South Carolina governor’s office).
The bombshell claims – first articulated by Mace during her famous “scorched earth” speech back in February – have sparked a criminal investigation, multiple civil lawsuits, high-profile terminations and a pointed response from a political rival Mace accused of institutionally enabling attacks against women.
One of the men accused by Mace in her floor speech, Brian Musgrave of Fort Mill, S.C., has since sued her for defamation. Another of the alleged “predators,” John Osborne of Johns Island, lost his job as a managing partner at a Charleston, S.C.-based venture capital firm. Yet another, Eric Bowman of Sullivans Island, was recently arrested in a tangentially related case and charged with one count of first degree harassment and one count of stalking. Mace has also filed a civil lawsuit against Bowman accusing him of making “multiple, objectively false assertions of fact to third parties asserting that she committed illegal acts and abused her office as a member of the House of Representatives.”
Perhaps most significantly, one of the unnamed women allegedly victimized by Bryant has filed her own civil lawsuit against the wealthy businessman and several other defendants.
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It’s a lot to take in… and to those of us following its many twists and turns, the drama has taken on its own gravitational mass.
For his part, Bryant has steadfastly denied the allegations – accusing Mace of having “a long-running vendetta and blackmail campaign against me.”
Until recently, Bryant had been exclusively playing defense against Mace’s allegations – especially in the aftermath of the latest lawsuit. This week, though, he has begun to step up his counterattack against his erstwhile lover – amplifying the fact she has flip-flopped on her prior support for the so-called LGBTQ+ movement.
“People often ask, how did I ever love Nancy Mace?” Bryant wrote on his Facebook page this week. “The truth is, I was betrayed, not just personally, but by the person she once claimed to be. I thought I understood her values, believed they mirrored my own. Now I realize she may not have any at all?”
Bryant’s post linked to a Raw Story article pillorying Mace for making “a 180-degree turn when it comes to LGBTQ+ rights.” The article documented prior statements made by Mace which certainly appear to be wholly inconsistent with her current views.
“The pandemic kept us all from celebrating Pride here in the Lowcountry in 2020,” Mace wrote in a 2021 tweet. “But hopefully, as we finally begin to open back up, we can all come together to celebrate the challenges our LGBTQ+ [community] has overcome, and the bright future ahead. #PrideMonth #Pride2021.”
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RELATED | MAN ARRESTED FOR THREATENING TO KILL NANCY MACE
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“I strongly support LGBTQ rights and equality,” Mace told gay reporter Brad Polumbo in 2021. “No one should be discriminated against.”
“I have friends and family that identify as LGBTQ,” Mace added. “Understanding how they feel and how they’ve been treated is important. Having been around gay, lesbian, and transgender people has informed my opinion over my lifetime.”
To say Mace has abandoned any prior support for the “Pride” movement would be a dramatic understatement. In recent months, she has become one of the most outspoken national critics of its excesses – in the process becoming a target for assassination by some of its most virulent elements.
Mace backers say she hasn’t changed her position – noting that her staunch views against transsexuals are focused on limiting their access to children (or to facilities where real women should have a reasonable expectation of privacy).
While Mace’s evolution from tolerant inclusive to #HoldTheLine “anti-tranny” has not hurt her with South Carolina GOP primary voters, many of them have yet to be educated on it.
Such an education is coming, a source who supports a rival 2026 Palmetto gubernatorial candidate assured FITSNews.
“You think this isn’t the first ad we run out of the gate against her?” the source asked rhetorically, hinting that a spot was already in production which will link Mace’s former views to those of former vice president Kamala Harris.
Count on FITSNews to not only keep tabs on the ongoing criminal, civil and attendant cases tied to Mace’s recent revelations – but to track their political fallout as she and her rivals inch closer to declaring their candidacies for next June’s GOP primary election.
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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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1 comment
In 2021 and earlier, I felt the same way….live and let live until the Biden administration shoved it all in our faces, literally, by having Pride boob flashes at the White House and that stupid Christmas dance thing on Christmas which was offensive to…well Christians. It had to go too far and when it involved children and girls rights, that’s where they lost me too.
That’s what I like about Nancy. You always know where she stands and she’s not afraid to change her mind when the circumstances change.
As for her ex-fiance – I’m suspicious of anyone that has to hire the “knife fighter” to do a media blitz against her and this smells like a chapter of that.
I’m good with Nancy and I think she’s telling the truth about what she found on his phone.