Alabama GOP Sen. Katie Britt responded to his claims on Sunday the answer To President Joe Biden State of the Union the address was misleading.
Criticism centers on a story Britt told about a human trafficking victim that implied it took place under Biden.
In a speech Thursday night, Britt talked about visiting the US-Mexico border in 2023 and talking to this woman.
“She was sex-trafficked by the cartels starting at age 12. She told me not only that she was raped every day, but multiple times a day,” Britt said in a response to the State of the Union.
“We will not like what is happening in a Third World country. This is the United States of America, and I think it’s time we started acting like it,” he added. “President Biden’s border crisis is a disgrace.”
A viral social media post by journalist Jonathan Katz shortly after the address took a closer look at the story and noted that human trafficking did not occur during Biden’s presidency, not even in the United States; this happened in Mexico during the administration of President George W. Bush.
On “Fox News Sunday,” Britt did not admit to making any mistakes or giving the wrong impression.
He was asked if he intended to give the impression that the story he told about the human trafficking victim took place during Biden’s time.
“No,” Britt replied, then added, “I made it very clear that I spoke to a woman who told me she was trafficked when she was 12, so I didn’t say teen. When she was trafficked at 12, she was a young woman, a grown woman. , I didn’t say woman.”
He doubled down in a statement Thursday that Biden “didn’t just create this border crisis. He invited it with 94 enforcement actions in the first 100 days.
“I specifically said this is what President Biden has done in his first 100 days. Within minutes of taking office, he halted all deportations, halted construction of the border wall,” he said. (Biden administration Tried to create a 100 day break about mass deportations after taking office, but this moratorium was made later stopped by the referee.)
Britt, although a spokeswoman for her office did not offer the victim’s name in a statement Thursday he said The Washington Post said he was referring to Carla Jacinto Romero, an advocate for the rights of human trafficking victims. testified About what happened to her as a girl in front of Congress in 2015.
Britt’s office did not respond to NBC News’ request for comment Saturday.
The White House hit back at the Republican senator, accusing Britt of relying on “out-of-the-box lies” to attack Biden.
“Instead of telling more exposed lies to justify opposing the toughest bipartisan border legislation in modern history, Senator Britt should stop choosing people smugglers and fentanyl traffickers over our national security and the Border Patrol,” said White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates. statement. “As President Biden said at the State of the Union, ‘We have a simple choice: we can fight to fix the border, or we can fix it.'”
In his 2015 congressional testimony, Jacinto Romero told lawmakers through an interpreter: “For more than four years of my life since I was 12 years old…I became a professional pimp. a prince cornered me and forced me to work in the streets for his own profit. For years and years I was coerced, intimidated, threatened, beaten, robbed of my children, repeatedly emotionally and sexually abused.”
Jacinto Romero was 22 years old when he testified, meaning the experience he described began nearly a decade earlier.
Britt met Jacinto Romero during a visit to the Del Rio sector of the US-Mexico border in January 2023, where he was accompanied by Fox News’ Sarah Carter, former Mexican politician and victims’ advocate Rosa Maria de la Garza Ramirez and GOP Sens. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi.
On “The Sara Carter Show,” which aired the same day as the trip, Carter said she introduced Jacinto Romero to senators and told listeners, “He spoke very vividly and candidly with the lawmakers … about what happened to him, how people bought him.”
Republicans have long criticized Biden’s handling of the border, arguing that the president has been ineffective in stopping migrant crossings that have expanded along the southern border. The Biden administration has opposed Congress’ reluctance to step up to the plate since the bipartisan border deal. broke upand is the president reported is considering taking enforcement action to prevent migration.