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Katie Britt uses testimony of sexual abuse of young women to attack Biden's border policies
Republican Katie Britt defended her use of a sex trafficking survivor's account to attack President Joe Biden's State of the Union address.
In her televised response, she used the story to attack Biden's border policies, even though the incident occurred in Mexico years before Biden took office.
Fact checkers pointed out the inaccuracy of the Alabama senator's comparison.
But in an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Britt insisted he did not mislead voters with his claims.
In their response to the president's speech, Republicans cited the story of a woman who was raped thousands of times in a drug cartel sex trafficking operation starting when she was 12 years old. Her communications director told The Washington Post that her anecdote was about Carla Jacinto Romero.
Romero, who has spoken publicly about her abuse in the past, said it occurred in her native Mexico between 2004 and 2008, when Republican George W. Bush was president of the United States.
“We cannot tolerate something like this happening in a third world country. This is the United States of America and it is past time for us to act like that,” Britt said Thursday night at his home. He spoke in a speech broadcast from his kitchen.
Asked by Fox News host Shannon Bream on Sunday whether he was trying to “create the impression that this horrific story happened on President Biden's watch,” the senator said “no.”
Britt, the youngest Senate Republican leader, argued instead that she was talking about actions Biden has allegedly taken to weaken border security.
She went on to say that “human trafficking has increased under President Biden.”
“It's disgusting that people are trying to silence the story of what sex trafficking is like,” she added. “This is a story of something happening at an astronomical rate right now, and we have to pay attention to it.”
Sen Britt has faced widespread criticism for his response to the State of the Union, which has traditionally been delivered by rising stars within the opposition.
Alabama Sen. Katie Britt launches Republican response with jab at president's age
Some Republicans objected to the unconventional setting of her kitchen table in Montgomery for a speech aimed at countering the president's remarks at the Capitol.
“I don't understand the decision to put her in the kitchen for one of the most important speeches she's ever given,” Alyssa Farrar Griffin, President Trump's former White House communications adviser, wrote in a post on X.
Some Republicans criticized Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson's “excessive” comments in a scathing skit on “Saturday Night Live,” a show popular with young viewers.
Referring to the sex trafficking story, Johansson said, “Rest assured, all the details are true, except for the year it happened, the location, and the president at the time.”
After Thursday night's rebuttal speech, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump wrote on social media: “Her conversation on immigrant crime was powerful and insightful. Great job, Katie!” praised.
