Topline
Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., pushed back on criticism she’s received in the days since her State of the Union response for an anecdote that linked sexual assault to President Joe Biden’s border policies, saying Sunday she wasn’t suggesting the story—which is nearly 20 years old—happened while Biden was in office.
Key Facts
During her remarks on Thursday, Britt shared a story of a visit to Texas where she met with a woman who had been sex trafficked and raped by members of Mexican cartels.
She seemed to suggest the incidents took place in the United States, linking them to “President Biden’s border policies,” which she called “a disgrace.”
That anecdote, though, appears to have occurred in Mexico between 2004 and 2008, when President George W. Bush held office.
Britt first dodged a question about the anecdote on Fox News Sunday by listing her frustrations with Biden’s policies, including halting construction of the border wall and stopping deportations which Britt said act as a “magnet” to bring more people to the U.S.
When Fox News’ Shannon Bream pushed Britt to get into the specifics of the story, Britt claimed she was clear in her remarks she spoke to a woman “who told me about when she was trafficked when she was 12,” implying the anecdote was not a recent one and the woman was speaking about her past.
Crucial Quote
“I very clearly said, I spoke to a woman who told me about when she was trafficked when she was 12,” Britt said Sunday. “So I didn’t say, a teenager. I didn’t say a young woman, a grown woman, a woman when she was trafficked when she was 12.”
Chief Critic
In a statement Sunday, White House spokesperson Andrew Bates accused Britt of telling “more debunked lies to justify the toughest bipartisan border legislation in modern history.” Bates said Britt should “stop choosing human smugglers and fentanyl traffickers over our national security and the Border Patrol Union.”
Key Background
Questions around Britt’s sex trafficking story began swirling over the weekend when Jonathan Katz, an independent journalist, posted a seven-minute long TikTok video raising some questions with Britt’s story. Katz explained that the woman Britt appears to be talking about is Karla Jacinto Romero whose story of sexual assault she’s shared took place in Mexico when former Bush was in office. Romero testified before Congress in 2015 and shared the same story, Katz told viewers. Britt’s communications director Sean Ross confirmed the story was about Romero and said the senator’s anecdote was “100% correct,” in a comment to the Washington Post.
Tangent
Saturday Night Live joined in the criticism Saturday when actress Scarlett Johansson portrayed Britt and poked fun at the quick tone shifts in Britt’s remarks referencing her sex trafficking anecdote. “First and foremost, I’m a mom,” Johansson said as Britt. “And like any mom I’m going to do a pivot out of nowhere into a shockingly violent story about sex trafficking.”