In a live TV interview, British-American journalist Mehdi Hasan repeatedly called anti-LGBTQ+ Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) a racist bigot and asked her if she was a drunk. The exchange occurred when they both appeared on the Thursday installment of Piers Morgan Uncensored, a news talk program.
Early into her appearance, Morgan asked Mace about an August social media message in which she wrote, “Every single Muslim holding public office in America is a Trojan horse and a threat to both national security and our republic.”
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Mace immediately said she’s terrified of radical Islam, and Hasan later agreed that he wouldn’t want to be killed by Islamic terrorists. But he also noted that not all terrorists are Muslim and not all Muslims are terrorist.
He then asked Mace if she thinks Dr. Mehmet Oz should be allowed to head Medicaid and Medicare under President Donald Trump because he’s Muslim. Mace claimed Oz doesn’t hold “public office” because he wasn’t “elected” — Trump appointed him; Hasan scoffed at Mace’s claim, and the two then began shouting over one another.
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“Mehdi’s anger toward me and the lack of respect as a woman, not even allowing me to speak, is basically part of Sharia law,” Mace claimed, referring to religious law that Republicans have characterized as violent and un-American, despite the fact that “Sharia law” can also refer to everyday religious and ceremonial Muslim precepts.
“There’s no Sharia law [in America],” Hasan said. “It’s a boogeyman that the Republicans tried 15 years ago, and now they’re doing it again. Why? Because gas prices are high. Nobody trusts them. They’re losing in the polls. They’re going to lose in the midterms. They fall back on racism, bigotry, and Sharia law.”
“[Muslim New York Mayor] Zoran Madani and [Muslim, Michigan US Senate candidate] Abdul Al-Sayed support Sharia law. I’m pretty sure they’re more pro-gay than Nancy Mace is,” Hasan said. “They’re more pro-transgender than Nancy Mace is. She has horrifically bigoted things to say about gay and transgender people. So the idea that they’re pushing Sharia law is absurd.”
Medhi eventually called Mace a “racist bigot,” said she wasn’t “this bats**t crazy racist” five years ago, and, in a subsequent exchange, he claimed she posted an AI video suggesting that Trump had endorsed her South Carolina gubernatorial bid after Trump endorsed her opponent.
“I just wonder, were you drunk at the time? What was going on?” Hasan asked her.
He also referenced a February New York Magazine article that discussed Mace’s allegedly increased drinking, which included sending staffers to a liquor store late at night to keep parties going in her home, a violation of congressional ethics rules.
Despite Mace’s claim that she has a rare medical condition that makes her unable to drink alcohol, Natalie Johnson, Mace’s own former communications director, has said that Mace is a pretty big drinker.
“Nancy Mace claiming she doesn’t drink alcohol might be the funniest, most brazen lie she’s told to date,” Johnson posted last February. “The woman drank so much she’d have interns or junior staff run to Congressional Liquor during the work day so she could imbibe during telephone town halls.”
Johnson then posted some more pictures of Mace drinking and shared Mace’s own tweets discussing the consumption of alcohol.
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