Nancy Mace’s former aide tears into her over transgender bathroom bill

South Carolina U.S. Representative Nancy Mace‘s former aide ripped into the Republican Wednesday over her efforts to ban transgender lawmakers from using restrooms in the U.S. Capitol that correspond to their gender identity.

“If you think this bill is about protecting women and not simply a ploy to get on Fox News, you’ve been fooled,” Mace’s former communications director, Natalie Johnson, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

In another post, she referred to sex-trafficking allegations against former U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, writing that “‘Protecting women’ in Congress would be introducing a bill to bar Matt Gaetz, a sexual predator with an affinity for underage girls, from ever walking those halls again, rather than dropping a messaging bill that’s sole goal is getting on TV.”

President-elect Donald Trump recently nominated Gaetz for attorney general, and Gaetz resigned his seat in Congress shortly after. His nomination has been fraught with tension, however, because of a since-shuttered Justice Department investigation into Gaetz related to sex-trafficking allegations, and a House Ethics Committee inquiry into the matter that was closed after Gaetz resigned.

Gaetz has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and said the allegations were part of a broad scheme to extort his family.

Mace ignited significant controversy when she introduced a resolution this week to bar transgender women from using the women’s restroom at the Capitol. The South Carolina lawmaker’s proposal came days after the first transgender woman, Delaware Representative-elect Sarah McBride, was elected to the House of Representatives.

Mace and other far-right Republican lawmakers have doubled down on their support for the proposal in the days since. Mace on Tuesday posted a video to X that showed her placing a sign reading “biological” above a women’s restroom sign at the Capitol.

Johnson referred to Mace’s prolific posting on X, writing earlier Wednesday that “tweeting 262 times about a bill that applies to like .00000001% of Congress in 36 hours is definitely about protecting women. It’s certainly not just a ploy for media attention.”

Newsweek reached out to a Mace spokesperson for comment via email Wednesday night.

U.S. GOP Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia also backed Mace’s measure, referring to McBride as “a man” and “he” several times in a video posted to X.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday that he supports restricting “single-sex facilities” in the Capitol to “individuals of that biological sex,” effectively barring McBride from using the women’s restroom.

There is no evidence that transgender women pose an increased threat to safety in bathrooms. Transgender people are also several times more likely to be the victims of violent crimes than those who are not transgender.

McBride weighed in on Mace’s proposal on X, writing, “Every day Americans go to work with people who have life journeys different than their own and engage with them respectfully, I hope members of Congress can muster that same kindness.”