Republicans say Britt is being treated like Sarah Palin 2.0

Alabama Sen. Katie Britt’s (R) debut on the national political stage is drawing comparisons to another fiery conservative mom: former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R).

The comparisons took on new life Saturday night, when Britt’s stage appearance was parodied by Scarlett Johansson on “Saturday Night Live,” much like Palin was parodied by Tina Fey in 2008.

Even some Republicans acknowledged that Britt’s presentation was “over the top,” but saw the intense reaction from Democrats and media experts as driven by fear that Britt’s presentation as a mother sitting in a kitchen could actually alienate Biden’s women voters. .

Britt is now being mentioned as a possible running mate for the vice presidency, the position Palin held in the presidential campaign of former Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) posted on social media platform before his” and indulgent. The response to Biden “tells us who liberals fear most as a vice presidential candidate.”

Vin Weber, a Republican strategist, agreed with Romney’s assessment that Democrats see Britt as a real threat and want to clip her wings as quickly as possible, which is what they tried to do to Palin when she threatened to alienate the women voters of the former president. Obama in 2008.

“I think Katie Britt is one of the most impressive people to come to the Senate in a long time. “I think Democrats know that she is a rising star in the Republican Party, and if they can do anything to smear her early in her career, they will,” she said.

“They don’t want to see an attractive, articulate, intelligent rising star, especially a young woman, in the Republican Party,” he added.

Weber said Palin, who was the nation’s most popular governor in 2008, similarly scared Democrats, pointing to 2007 polls that showed Palin with 93 percent and 89 percent approval among voters.

“The way she was treated was unfair, and the way Senator Britt is being treated is unfair,” he said.

Jim Manley, a Democratic strategist and former Senate leadership aide, said Britt’s satirized State of the Union response brought him back to September 2008, when Palin burst onto the national political stage by describing herself as a “hockey mom” who got her start in politics. her signing up for the PTA.

“This reminds me badly of Sarah Palin,” said Manley, who argued that in both cases, Republicans elected people without thorough vetting.

“Senator. “Britt has an extremely conservative voting record, but no one pays attention to it,” she added.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) tapped Britt to deliver the answer in what was widely interpreted as a play to appeal to female voters, who McConnell has said in the past they will be crucial in determining control of the Senate.

Senate Republican Leader John Thune (SD), McConnell’s top deputy, defended Monday that Britt’s speech was effective.

“I thought his comments were really good. I think they drew a nice contrast to what the president said,” Thune told reporters.

Britt ran for senator from Alabama on Thursday, but downplayed that as less important than being “a proud wife and mother of two school-aged children.”

She opted for a homey vibe in her beige-toned kitchen with warm décor, while also providing some dark rhetoric.

“Right now, the American dream has become a nightmare for many families,” he declared before launching an attack on Biden’s border policies and then detailing the horrific experience of a sex trafficking victim who was raped for hours a day. at the age of 12 years.

He then mentioned “fentanyl poisonings” and “horrific murders” as additional consequences of Biden’s policies and discussed the death of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, who he said “was brutally murdered by one of the millions of people who illegally crossed the border that President Biden chose.” to liberate our homeland.”

Political pundits immediately viewed Britt’s high-profile response as an audition to become former President Trump’s running mate in 2024.

He touched on the same themes as Trump when he launched his campaign in 2015 by declaring that criminals and rapists were coming to the country from Mexico.

Britt also drew comparisons to Palin among social media experts, such as political journalist Ed Krassenstein, who marveled: “Is it just me or is Alabama Senator Katie Britt the 2024 version of Sarah Palin?”

Fifteen years ago, Palin appeared at the Republican convention talking about her family before lashing out at Democratic nominee Obama, portraying him as a defeatist willing to give up victory in Iraq and eager to meet with terrorist states seeking nuclear weapons.

“You know, they say the difference is between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick,” Palin joked in a joke that went viral.

Ross K. Baker, a professor emeritus of political science at Rutgers University who has served on several Senate fellowships, said Britt, former chief of staff to former Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) and former executive director of the Alabama Business Council. . She “is smarter than Sarah Palin” and probably realizes that she now “has work to do on her own image” after the wave of criticism she faced over her comments on the State of the Union.

Baker rated Johansson’s satirical portrayal of Britt a “Tina Fey plus 10 in terms of accuracy.”

But he also noted that his turn in the spotlight will likely play out well in Alabama and other deeply red parts of the country.

While many critics on social media mocked Britt’s sometimes choppy performance during her response to the State of the Union, some outlets criticized Britt for telling a story about a victim whose experiences took place before Biden’s term.

The New York Times characterized Britt’s anecdote as “misleading” and she was later questioned about it by “Fox News Sunday” host Shannon Bream.

Britt told Bream that she did not intend to give the impression that the harrowing story of a woman serially raped by a Mexican cartel had occurred during Biden’s presidency.

It quickly came to light that the incidents Britt described occurred years ago, long before Biden’s 2020 election.

Media groups then identified the victim in Britt’s story on Monday as Karla Jacinto Romero, who told CNN in an interview that her story had been “distorted for political purposes.”

The victim explained that she was held captive from 2004 to 2008, during the Bush administration, by a pimp who worked separately from the cartel and that she was not trafficked into the United States.

Britt and Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) met Jacinto Romero during a trip to the border last year, according to a Senate Republican news release.

Britt’s office did not respond to a request for comment for this story and ignored reporters’ questions about the sex trafficking allegation after the Senate GOP leadership meeting on Monday.

Thune on Monday rejected criticism that Britt attempted to unfairly blame Biden for the plight of the sex trafficking victim he highlighted after the State of the Union.

“I think she pointed out in her comments that the situation at the border is allowing many women to be exploited in just horrible ways,” he said.