Conservatives had mixed reactions to South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace's risqué anecdote at a prayer breakfast in Washington, D.C., as some said it was the wrong joke for the audience, while others said scolding her for the gag was a "bad look."
Mace said Wednesday that her fiancé tried to keep her in bed that morning, but she insisted she needed to get to the breakfast on time.
"When I woke up this morning at 7, I was getting picked up at 7:45, Patrick, my fiancé, tried to pull me by my waist over this morning in bed. And I was like, 'No, baby, we don't got time for that this morning,'" Mace remarked.
"I gotta get to the prayer breakfast, and I gotta be on time," she said.
"A little TMI," Mace joked as the crowed chuckled. "He can wait, I'll see him later tonight," Mace added.
The clip of her speech went viral on Twitter Thursday. Mace reacted in a tweet saying, "I go to church because I’m a sinner not because I’m a saint!"
"Glad those in attendance, including @SenatorTimScott and our pastor, took this joke in stride. Pastor Greg and I will have a little extra to talk about on Sunday now," she said.
But some conservatives took issue that Mace used her platform at a Christian prayer breakfast to make light of premarital sex, which Christianity considers a sin.
Tom Ascol, pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Florida, chided, "How thoughtful for @NancyMace to delay fornication so she could show up on time for @votetimescott's prayer breakfast. Reminds me of a line from that old song, "E'rybody talkin' 'bout heaven ain't going there."
"Nancy Mace just said she turned down sex from her NOT husband but her fiancé this morning in bed because she had to get to the PRAYER BREAKFAST," said Graham Allen, a conservative commentator associated with Turning Point USA's faith division.
"I’ll take ‘what is a sin for $500 Alex,’" he said.
Allie Beth Stucky, host of The Conservative Millennial podcast, retweeted the clip and said, "When I say I SCREAMED," with a laughing face emoji.
Later she tweeted, "Thinking about this again. These comments just go to show how little politicians — even Republican politicians — know or care about Christianity. They have no idea the values Christians hold. They’d be aghast to know we still think sex is reserved for marriage."
"It’s honestly worse than Democrats. It’s better to deny Christianity altogether than to use Christianity as a campaign slogan," she added.
But not all conservatives took offense to Mace's comments.
David Marcus, conservative columnist and commentator, tweeted "I want Nancy Mace to eulogize me."
Erielle Davidson, another conservative commentator, said, "I find the outrage over Nancy Mace stupid. She made a joke. Didn’t read the room. Whatever. Humorless scolding is a bad look."
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One Twitter user argued that Mace's comments would not have gone viral if she were a man. But T. Becket Adams, program director at the National Journalism Center of the Young America's Foundation, argued that the comments were likely newsworthy, no matter who said them.
"Counterpoint: Yes, it absolutely would go viral if a young, twice-divorced GOP congressman casually mentioned *at a prayer breakfast* that he plans to plow his live-in girlfriend later that evening," Adams stated.
"I mean, come on. I get double-standards are a go-to bugaboo for some people, but be realistic," he said.
