Topline
Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., appeared to link a story about sexual assault to President Joe Biden’s border policies during her State of the Union response speech this week, but new details highlighted by an independent journalist Saturday revealed the story took place in Mexico during the Bush administration.
Key Facts
During her State of the Union rebuttal, Britt recalled how she visited Texas and spoke with a woman who shared a story of how she’d been sex trafficked and repeatedly raped by members of Mexican cartels.
She appeared to suggest the story took place near the border or even in the United States and linked it to Biden’s approach at the border, saying “we wouldn’t be OK with this happening in a third world country. This is the United States of America, and it’s past time, in my opinion, that we start acting like it. President Biden’s border policies are a disgrace.”
But in a TikTok video, independent journalist Jonathan Katz found evidence that the woman in the story is Karla Jacinto Romero, a woman who testified before Congress, sharing the same story, in 2015.
The incident Romero described took place in Mexico between 2004 and 2008, when Republican President George W. Bush was in office.
The video and revelations prompted criticism on social media and elsewhere, with Pulitzer-winning columnist Kyle Whitmire writing for AL.com that Britt was leaning into the “politics of fear” and adding:: “Britt wants us to believe she has concern for folks like Romero, at the same time she advocates building an impenetrable wall that would keep victims of brutal cartels at bay.”
Contra
Forbes has contacted Britt’s office for comment. But communications director Sean Ross confirmed to the Washington Post that Britt was talking about Romero and defended Britt’s inclusion of the story in her speech. He said the story was “100% correct” and added “there are more innocent victims of that kind of disgusting, brutal trafficking by the cartels than ever before right now.” He added that Biden’s policies “have empowered the cartels and acted as a magnet to a historic level of migrants making the dangerous journey to our border.” He said that men, women and children migrating to America face “gut-wrenching, heartbreaking horrors in our own backyard” and added that Biden’s policies “are leading to more and more suffering, including Americans being poisoned by fentanyl and being murdered.”
Chief Critic
“That is just fundamentally dishonest, it goes beyond misleading,” Katz said in his video.
Key Background
The revelation comes as Britt’s speech was already facing criticism from both Republicans and Democrats for her dramatic delivery and the choice of setting the speech in a kitchen. Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, for instance, tweeted that Britt “is talking like she’s hosting a cooking show whispering about how Democrats ‘don’t get it.’” Republican commentator Megyn Kelly said in a podcast that she agreed with critics who said she “looked like she was auditioning for a show on Lifetime.”