Alabama Sen. Katie Britt addressed the growing criticisms of her rebuttal of United States President Joe Biden's State of the Union (SOTU) address, denying that she misled voters.
The Republican lawmaker defended her use of an account that belonged to a sex trafficking victim to attack the president's SOTU address. Following the rebuttal, fact-checkers pointed to a number of inaccuracies in the Alabama senator's comparison.
Katie Britt Defends Rebuttal of Biden SOTU Address
During a Sunday interview with Fox News, Britt insisted that she did not mislead voters with her claims in her rebuttal. In her comments to Biden's speech, she invoked the story of a woman who was raped thousands of times in a sex trafficking operation that was run by drug cartels, which began when she was only 12 years old.
Britt's communications director later said that the anecdote was about a woman named Karla Jacinto Romero. The latter had spoken out publicly about the sexual abuse that she experienced in the past. However, the crime happened in her home country of Mexico from 2004 to 2008, which was when Republican George W. Bush was the president, according to BBC.
In her Thursday night speech, the Alabama senator said that Americans would not be okay with such a crime happening in a third-world country. When asked on Sunday what she meant with her remarks and if she was trying to give the impression that the story occurred under Biden's presidency, she answered, "No."
Britt, the youngest woman representing the Republicans in the Senate, insisted that she was simply speaking about actions that the Democratic president has allegedly taken that she claimed have weakened border security.
The Alabama senator also went out of her way to say that "human trafficking has gone up under President Biden." She added that it was disgusting trying to silence the story of what it was like to be a victim of sex trafficking.
The Story of a Sex Trafficking Victim
The criticism in response to Britt's story took attention away from the intended purpose of her speech, which was to counter Biden's remarks in his SOTU address. Politico said a former Associated Press reporter, Jonathan M. Katz, first drew attention to the blurry details of the Alabama senator's story.
The moment spread quickly across various social media platforms and Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson also appeared in Saturday Night Live (SNL) to parody the senator. Britt's story also earned four "Pinocchios" from the Washington Post's Fact Checker columnist Glenn Kessler.
Additionally, the subject of Britt's story, Romero, said that she hardly ever cooperates with politicians because she believes that they only want a photo. She added that Mexican politicians took advantage of her by using her story for political purposes and that it was happening once again in the U.S.
Romero argued that she is currently a spokesperson for many victims who have no voice and urged politicians to be empathetic. She said that Sen. Britt should first take into account what actually happens before telling a story of that magnitude, according to CNN.
Related Article: Biden Apologizes for Using 'Illegal' to Describe Laken Riley's Alleged Murderer
