Considering the weight given to the opposing party’s
State of the Union response, it’s highly probable that the speech delivered by
Republican Senator Katie Britt of
Alabama — with all the hammy excess of a fourth-grader in a Sunday school play — had many fingerprints on it beyond her own. But however long the rebuttal lasts, it’s the person on camera who effectively becomes the face and voice of their party. So when Britt appeared to lie last Thursday, not only about what happened to a sex trafficking survivor but also about where and when the traumatic events occurred, she did so representing the party that has proven once again that facts are irrelevant. In her zeal to attack President Biden’s policies at the southern border, she seemed to misappropriate Karla Jacinto’s story and did not give her prior warning or ask her permission. And since Britt’s version has unraveled, she has offered no apology. Advertisement In an exclusive interview with CNN’s Rafael Romo , Jacinto, who lives in Mexico, said that she rarely cooperates “with politicians because it seems to me that they only want an image. They only want a photo — and that to me is not fair.” What’s also not fair is how Britt and her fellow
Republicans appear to have retrofitted Jacinto’s harrowing story to fit their damning narrative about Biden, the US-Mexico border, and
immigration. Contrary to what Britt shared with millions, Jacinto told Romo, who first profiled her in 2014, she was never trafficked in this country. She was not held by a Mexican drug cartel but was forced into prostitution by a man who was part of a family that preyed on vulnerable girls. And all of this happened in
Mexico between 2004 and 2008 when
George W. Bush, not Biden, was president. There’s low — and then there’s misusing and mishandling a sex trafficking survivor’s story low. Advertisement When asked, if given the opportunity, what she would tell Britt, Jacinto, now an anti-trafficking advocate, said that Britt can “contact people who have really gone through what she says. I would love to have a pleasant chat with her instead of [being used] in a political way to get a position.” For Britt, that position is as a potential vice president pick for presumptive Republican presidential nominee
Donald Trump. If one views Britt’s speech not as a rebuttal but as an audition for an audience of one in Florida, it all makes dreary sense. It was Trump who pressured Republicans to tank the bipartisan border bill that they helped negotiate to give him a hot-button campaign topic to use as a cudgel against Biden. That was yet another sign that GOP lawmakers will do whatever they deem necessary to give Trump whatever he wants and protect their own political necks. And what Trump wanted after Biden’s State of the Union address was exactly what Britt’s melodramatic “America’s mom” delivered from, of all places, her kitchen — an over-caffeinated June Cleaver talking about a crumbling
American Dream, sex trafficking, and migrants destroying the country. Those most upset with Britt’s mangling of facts and her refusal to admit as much weren’t the people she was trying to reach. Republicans count on their supporters to not just ignore facts but to be completely immune to them. Truth is irrelevant. Advertisement Neither
Senate Republicans nor her home state’s Republican Party will do anything to admonish Britt for her mendacious retelling of what Jacinto says is her story. Forget about censure. The only Republicans who suffer that fate are those who run afoul of Trump, like former representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, who were censured in 2022 for being the only GOP members of the Democrat-led House select committee that investigated the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection. And on Monday, Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, one of the authors of the border security bill that Republicans scuttled, was censured by the Oklahoma County GOP after he nodded his head in agreement with Biden during the State of the Union when the president ticked off improvements the failed border bill could have implemented. Britt will be shielded because she did what she was supposed to do — foment fear, tell lies, and make Trump happy. Somewhere, former Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal and senator Marco “I’m so thirsty” Rubio of
Florida are smiling because they’ve been bumped out of contention for the worst Republican response to a SOTU address. But even more than the lampoon-worthy manner in which Britt delivered her response, it’s the lies she apparently concocted that will stick. During her speech, she said, “Biden’s border crisis is a disgrace. It’s despicable.” What’s disgraceful is Britt and the Republicans’ apparent willingness to exploit the very real horror of sex trafficking to score points with the despicable man who has been credibly accused of
Sexual Misconduct by multiple
Women and was found liable last year of
Sexual Abuse — and is their party’s probable presidential nominee. Advertisement Renée Graham is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at renee.graham@globe.com . Follow her @reneeygraham .