After Biden’s State of the Union address, it’s up to a rising U.S. senator from Alabama to bring the Republican response to the world. But Katie Britt’s statement has the potential to cause embarrassment. Even conservatives are embarrassed by her appearance.
Sometimes radiant, sometimes depressed, sometimes sad, Katie Britt looks into the camera. Her tidy kitchen can be seen in the background. A glittering cross hangs around her neck. She explains to American citizens why they should dislike what President Joe Biden just said during his State of the Union address. But what the aspiring senator from the US state of Alabama says in around 17.5 minutes is irrelevant.
Two days after her memorable remarks, the media and social networks are still primarily talking about the “how” of her statements. Or rather: blasphemed. Contrived, inauthentic, like in school theater, the milder judgments are still there Britt’s speech. And in fact, from the perspective of German observers, who are used to beer tent speeches from Markus Söder and Friedrich Merz, it is difficult to bear listening to the Republican’s words.
She is the proud mother of two school-age children, Britt begins her speech at the kitchen table, which – “appropriately” – was published on International Women’s Day. Her offspring is the reason why she ran for the US Senate in the first place. Because she is worried about their future. This is where incumbent Biden comes into play because he has lost touch with reality, claims the 42-year-old. He doesn’t understand what concerns real families who gather around kitchen tables like theirs. The American dream has turned into a nightmare. “Our families are doing poorly. Our country can do better.”
In addition to the “crisis” on the southern border with Mexico that she drastically depicts, Britt also talks about Biden’s foreign policy. She mentions the hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan and the attitude towards the regime in Iran, but fails to say what she criticizes about it alongside these keywords. She touches on the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, the regime in Beijing that is gaining influence and the brutal Hamas attack in Israel.
Harrowing victim story twisted
She also criticizes the miserable economic situation in which Biden is said to have brought the United States. And further: “Right now, our commander in chief is not in command. The free world deserves better than a dithering and weakened leader. America deserves a leadership that recognizes that secure borders, stable prices, safe roads and a strong defense are the cornerstones of a great nation.”
In addition to other platitudes and patriotic phrases, the senator talks about a woman who was a victim of human trafficking and shared her fate with her. The Mexican citizen was used as a sex slave by cartels starting when she was twelve. She told her that she was raped by several men every day. Even in a third world country that wouldn’t be okay. “This is the United States of America, and it’s time we started acting like it,” Britt says. “President Biden’s border crisis is a disgrace. It is despicable. And it is almost entirely avoidable.”
The senator is suggesting that the young woman’s terrible case took place in the United States in recent history – and that President Biden’s policies are responsible for it. But that’s not true. The US journalist Jonathan Katz exposes, what this story is all about. The person affected and her fate were not invented and Britt actually met her, but the events happened almost 20 years ago – and did not occur in the USA, but in Mexico. What’s particularly perfidious about Britt’s rhetoric is that Biden wasn’t even in government at the time. The head of state at the time was the Republican George W. Bush. This fact in particular brings Britt a lot of criticism. Also in the Republican ranks.
“What the hell am I looking at?”
It is tradition in the USA that there is a counter-speech to the President’s State of the Union address. Britt was handpicked by Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, it is said. A shot in the foot, as it now turns out. “Everyone is freaking the fuck out,” one Republican, who asked to remain anonymous, told The Daily Beast. “It’s one of the biggest disasters we’ve ever experienced.” “What the hell am I looking at?” Rolling Stone quoted an unnamed Trump adviser as saying.
Charlie Kirk, founder of the right-wing group Turning Point USA, posted on War is declared and Katie Britt talks like she’s hosting a cooking show and whispers about how the Democrats ‘don’t get it.’
Former Trump adviser in the White House and now critic of the ex-president, Alyssa Farah Griffin, said in an interview with CNN: “The production was bizarre to me. Women can be wives and mothers as well as stateswomen. She in a kitchen too and not sitting at a podium or in the Senate chamber where she was elected after a hard-fought race, I think was very flat and completely confusing to some women who saw that.”
The well-known conservative presenter Megyn Kelly said on her show that she was shocked by the appearance. “I don’t know what the hell I saw.” Britt’s posturing with a selection of dramatically portrayed emotions was inauthentic to her, Kelly continues. “She embarrassed herself. She embarrassed the Republicans. And she embarrassed women.” The journalist predicted that it would take years to recover politically. Even Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson reacted to the strange video. For the legendary sketch show “Saturday Night Live” she took on the role of Senator and took aim at their counter-speech.
Trump: “Good job, Katie!”
Meanwhile, Britt received support from Donald Trump. According to reports, the young politician, who has only been in the Senate since January 2023, is being considered as a possible vice president if the former US president wins against Biden in this year’s election. “Katie Britt was a GREAT contrast to an angry and clearly very disturbed ‘President’. She was compassionate and caring, especially when it came to women and women’s issues,” the 77-year-old wrote on his Truth Social platform. “Your comments on migrant crime were powerful and insightful. Good job, Katie!”
Whether her quirky performance will actually help Britt continue to rise in the Republican Party and a potential Trump administration remains to be seen. “Her performance was the stuff of nightmares, and people were surprised by it,” The Daily Beast quoted another anonymous Republican with ties to Trump as saying. The latter definitely followed the reporting on it and that “won’t help.”