Alabama Sen. Katie Britt on Sunday acknowledged that the graphic anecdote she employed to criticize President Joe Biden’s border policies didn’t occur during his presidency.
During the Republican response to the State of the Union address on Thursday, Britt described a woman’s story of being “sex trafficked by the cartels starting at age 12” before saying, “President Biden’s border crisis is a disgrace. It’s despicable. And it’s almost entirely preventable.”
Asked by Fox News’ Shannon Bream on Sunday whether she meant to give the impression that the story had taken place during Biden’s time in office, Britt responded: “No, Shannon,” before criticizing the president’s border policies.
“I very clearly said I spoke to a woman who told me about when she was trafficked when she was 12. 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,” Britt said.
In a detailed video posted on TikTok on Friday, freelance journalist Jonathan Katz tracked down what appears to be the story Britt referenced and found that it happened in Mexico in the mid-2000s.
Katz cited a 2023 press release from Sen. Marsha Blackburn, who, along with Sens. Britt and Cindy Hyde-Smith, went to Eagle Pass, Texas, in January 2023 – shortly after Britt took office – to hear from Karla Jacinto Romero, a human trafficking survivor, among others.
“The Senators learned about cartel activity in Mexico and the work being done to rescue victims of human trafficking,” the press release said.
Jacinto Romero has shared her story publicly, including in a 2015 hearing on sex trafficking held by the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Global Human Rights. Through a translator, she…
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