- Alabama Sen. Katie Britt defended the sex trafficking accounts she described in SOTU's rebuttal.
- Britt was criticized for linking the story of victims in Mexico decades ago to President Joe Biden.
- Britt said on Fox News that her comments were clear and denied that her words were deceptive.
Alabama Sen. Katie Britt stepped into the center of political attention last week, but she may wish she could step back.
The Republican rebuttal to President Joe Biden's State of the Union address on Thursday made Britt a target of fact-checkers and late-night comedians.
While Britt claimed that Biden “invited” the migrant crisis at the southern border, he brought up anecdotes from sex trafficking survivors he said he spoke to after he took office in 2023.
“I went to the Del Rio area of Texas, and I talked to a woman there who told me her story. She had been sex trafficked by a cartel since she was 12 years old. “She told me she wasn't just raped, she was raped every day. But how many times a day was she raped?” Britt said.
As Britt described the tragic circumstances of the woman's case, he seemed to imply that it happened under the Biden administration.
“We can't allow this to happen in a third world country. This is the United States of America, and I think it's past time for us to act like that. President Biden's border policies are a disgrace.” Britt said.
The problem is that the incident Britt refers to took place in Mexico during the second George W. Bush administration. The victim said she was abused between 2004 and 2008, and despite Britt's claims to the contrary, a fact-finding investigation by The Washington Post found no evidence that a cartel was involved.
When I asked him if he was planning on doing that, On Sunday, Britt defended her language, telling Shannon Bream on Fox News that it “gives the impression that this horrific story happened on Biden's watch.”
“No, Shannon, look, I said very specifically that this is President Biden's first 100-day actions,” detailing the president's immigration policy and executive actions with which Britt disagreed. .
Britt said he was simply contrasting Biden's first days with his own first 100 days in office, during which time he traveled to the border numerous times and spoke with “former victims of drug cartels.” He said he had talked.
“Okay, but just to be clear, the story you're reporting didn't happen under the Biden administration, man?” Snapper pressed.
“Well, I specifically said that I talked to a woman who told me about the time she was trafficked when she was 12 years old,” Britt replied. “I didn't say teenager. She didn't say young woman. She's a grown woman, a woman.”
In an interview with the Post, Britt's communications director, Sean Ross, disagreed with the premise that Britt's words about this anecdote were deceptive.
“Senator Britt is 100% correct,” Ross told the Post, adding that Biden's policies “empower the cartels” and cost more people “than ever before.” he claimed.
Ross did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider on Sunday.
