Nancy Mace demonstrates how easy it is to fear-monger on crime

You don’t need to click the video that Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) posted to X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday to be misinformed. The text accompanying the video summarized its premise — “Since Joe Biden took office, crime has skyrocketed across our country.” — and that, by itself, is false.

But the video goes further, including exaggerations and debunked allegations to cast the past few years as unusually harrowing and dangerous ones for Americans. This is an ad, after all, one promoting Mace’s reelection to Congress before South Carolina’s Republican primary. And ads are meant to sell something, not necessarily to accurately inform people.