Sen. Katie Britt Defends Using Human Trafficking Story In Her SOTU Rebuttal

On Sunday, Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) upheld her misleading claim that pinned the blame on President Joe Biden’s border policies for a harrowing anecdote about a survivor of sex trafficking.

During her State of the Union rebuttal, Britt appeared to inaccurately tie Biden’s administration with a woman who was sex trafficked at a young age. The congresswoman’s office confirmed to The Washington Post on Saturday that she was referring to Karla Jacinto Romero, an activist who publicly shared her experience of being sex trafficked to raise awareness about the dangers it poses.

Romero’s experience occurred in Mexico — not the U.S. — and took place during President George W. Bush’s administration. She shared her story at a congressional hearing in 2015.

“We wouldn’t be OK with this happening in a third-world country,” Britt said as she brought up Romero’s story during her rebuttal. “This is the United States of America, and it is past time, in my opinion, that we start acting like it. President Biden’s border policies are a disgrace. This crisis is despicable.”

“Did you mean to give the impression that this horrible story happened on President Biden’s watch?” “Fox News Sunday” host Shannon Bream asked the congresswoman about her retelling of the survivor’s story.

Initially, Britt did not respond directly to the question. Instead, she discussed Biden’s first 100 days in office, his decision to stop building the border wall, and his attempt to temporarily stop mass deportations before going on to say that human trafficking has gone up during Biden’s presidency.

“We need to tell those stories, and the liberal media needs to pay attention to it, because there are victims all the way coming to the border, there are victims at the