Fellow Republicans want "consequences" for the eight GOPers who teamed up with Democrats last week in the historic ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. On Tuesday, one of those eight made a bold statement in apparent defiance of that pushback: Reporters caught South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace strolling through the halls of the US Capitol, sporting a dark-colored blazer over a white T-shirt, which boasted a bright-red letter "A" on the front of the shirt. "I'm wearing the 'scarlet letter' after the week that I just had ... being a woman up here and being demonized for my vote and for my voice," Mace said, per the Hill.
The 45-year-old was apparently channeling Hester Prynne, the protagonist in Nathaniel Hawthorne's 19th-century classic The Scarlet Letter who became pregnant outside of marriage and was forced to wear a giant "A" as punishment. Mace was the only female Republican among the eight who voted McCarthy out, and she says he's broken a few promises to her, including on women's rights, that he made in exchange for her support when he ran for the speaker position in January.
"I'm here to let the rest of the world know and the country know: I'm on the side of the people," Mace said. "I'm not on the side of the establishment. And I'm going to do the right thing every single time, no matter the consequences, because I don't answer to anybody in DC. ... I only answer to the people." Mace also stressed to the Post and Courier that her new red imprint wasn't a publicity stunt, but a serious statement to her colleagues. "I turn down more interviews than I actually do," she said. "And I don't need to be performative, because I am a serious legislator."
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The congresswoman may be serious, but the memes that emerged after her appearance in DC weren't, per Newsweek. "Because she committed adultery in 1642? I don't get it," one commenter wrote online, referring to the allegations against Hawthorne's Prynne. Others wondered if Mace even knew what The Scarlet Letter was even about, or insisted that actor Demi Moore wore her red "A" better in the movie. (More Nancy Mace stories.)
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