As always after an act of high-profile politically themed vandalism, dark theories are circulating that the victim (or a sympathizer) is the perpetrator. I doubt it.

In the early morning hours of Memorial Day, my home, where I’m raising my two children, was vandalized with Antifa symbols and profanity.

Although my kids and I are thankfully fine, these criminal acts are unacceptable no matter your politics. pic.twitter.com/OIN5byPp0I

— Nancy Mace (@NancyMace) June 1, 2021

Click on the tweet to see larger photos of the graffiti. Mace issued this statement:

Those aren’t “Antifa symbols” on her sidewalk, although you can’t fault a GOP pol for using a little, shall we say, political license in a situation like this. I used to see that “A” in a circle all the time when I was in high school. It’s the symbol for anarchy. Dumb kids use it to signal their cringy juvenile rebellion against the “system.”

Assuming the perpetrator is found, that’s my guess as to who did it — some 17-year-old who’s going through their left-wing political awakening, read somewhere online about the “PRO Act,” knows that a right-wing congresswoman lives nearby, and couldn’t resist. It’s most assuredly not Antifa rampaging through her bougie island development in South Carolina.

As for the false-flag theory, the one semi-interesting point I saw made today was that all of the graffiti was left on concrete. Some of it’s on the sidewalk, some of it’s on the foundation of her house, coincidentally both places where it can easily be removed. None of it (as far as we can see) is on the house itself, where painting over it would be more costly. But it probably is just a coincidence. If you think Mace or someone acting at her behest did this, tell me what she gains by it. Her primary is a year away and no one will remember this three days from now. And a politician willing to stoop to something like this to generate sympathy from constituents wouldn’t have settled for a message as tame and even esoteric as “Pass the PRO Act.” It would have been red-meat stuff: “ANTIFA RULES” or “BAN GUNS” or “F*** TRUMP” or whatever. Then Mace would have been a martyr to bedrock conservative beliefs. As it is, I doubt one in a hundred people in her district knows what the PRO Act is.

And meanwhile, if she were involved and her involvement were exposed, she’d be a laughingstock. Her career would be over. And for what? Why risk that?

More simply, though, if you’ve ever seen Mace interviewed, she doesn’t seem the sort who’d pull a stunt like this. She’s soft-spoken and conciliatory, more prone to “better angels of our nature” rhetoric than a provocateur. (Even though she routinely votes with the provocateurs in the GOP caucus to stay on MAGA’s good side.) Right, I know: “She’s a politician!” All politicians are a little damaged. But to believe Mace is involved here you’d need to believe she’d terrorize her own children, making them feel unsafe in their home by vandalizing it. Ie. that she’s a remorseless sociopath. “I’m a single mom and this is where I’m raising my family,” she told Fox News. “It’s such a violation of one’s privacy… It doesn’t matter what your political beliefs are or your political affiliation, everyone should feel safe in their own home. And to have someone trespass onto your property and deface it in such a vile manner – even my kids had to see that yesterday.”

C’mon, it’s not her. And by the way, per Fox: “[A]n anarchist symbol was spray-painted in black on one of the welcoming columns to Smythe Park, near Mace’s home.” Again, that sounds more like a kid out on a lark than a false flag. Why vandalize the column if the point was simply to create sympathy for her by graffiti-ing her house?

It’s not her. But it’s not Antifa either.

Here she is outside her home today surveying the damage.

We can disagree on things politically but this is not the way to handle disagreements. This is my home; my kids live here.

I want to take a moment to thank everyone on both sides of the aisle for the outpouring of support we have received in response to this hateful attack. pic.twitter.com/06veWebalI

— Nancy Mace (@NancyMace) June 1, 2021