Illinois man pleads not guilty to assaulting Rep. Nancy Mace on Capitol grounds

Washington — An Illinois man who was charged with misdemeanor assault after allegedly shaking Rep. Nancy Mace’s hand in an “exaggerated, aggressive” method has entered a not responsible plea. 

James McIntyre, 33, of Chicago, was charged following an encounter at Rayburn Home Workplace Constructing on Tuesday night. Mace, a South Carolina Republican, mentioned in a social media publish earlier this week that the encounter left her needing a brace for her wrist, and icing her arm. 

Mace informed police that McIntyre mentioned, “Trans youth serve advocacy,” whereas shaking her hand. The Rayburn constructing was open on the time of the incident and Capitol police reported that McIntyre had been by way of a safety screening. 

She added on the time that she can be “fantastic simply as quickly because the ache and soreness subside,” however on Wednesday issued a collection of posts on X that accused the media of “utilizing the assault on me to prop up misogyny on the Left,” including, “Perhaps when the Left mentioned ‘consider all girls,’ they actually meant males who declare to be girls.” 

She mentioned President-elect Donald Trump referred to as to verify in on her after the incident. Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, informed reporters Wednesday that “no member of Congress ought to be accosted or assaulted or attacked primarily based on their political opinions,” calling the incident “very troubling.”

Final month, Mace stepped into the middle of controversy over transgender rights when she launched laws to alter Home guidelines to ban transgender girls from utilizing girls’s bogs and different amenities on Capitol Hill. 

Mace’s two-page decision would bar Home members, officers and staff from utilizing single-sex amenities within the Capitol or Home workplace buildings that don’t correspond with their “organic intercourse,” however that proposal got here simply earlier than the Home ready to swear-in the primary brazenly transgender member of Congress, Rep.-elect Sarah McBride of Delaware. 

After the encounter earlier this week, Mace declined to be handled by a paramedic. She has since posted a number of pictures of herself in an arm brace on social media. 

A Justice of the Peace choose ordered McIntyre’s launch after an arraignment in Superior Courtroom of the District of Columbia. 

Efforts to succeed in an lawyer for McIntyre weren’t instantly profitable. 

contributed to this report.