Sens. Lee and Romney defend Sen. Katie Britt

Sens. Mike Lee and Mitt Romney defended fellow Republican Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., after she was criticized over her rebuttal to the State of the Union address last week.

Britt, who delivered her remarks from her kitchen in Alabama, received criticism over her delivery. “Britt at times appeared to be on the verge of tears, while other times she whispered emphatically while painting a picture of Americans struggling under Biden’s presidency,” Newsweek said.

Romney, R-Utah, posted his response to the backlash against Britt’s comments on X stating, “In a good way, the delivery was over-the-top, out of character—Biden’s, of course. Katie Britt’s too. The media overreaction to hers not his tells us who liberals most fear as VP nominee.”

Britt has also faced criticism in recent days for her comments about a woman who Britt said was forced into sex trafficking when she was 12 after crossing the border.

“President Biden’s border crisis is a disgrace. It’s despicable. And it’s almost entirely preventable,” Britt said during her rebuttal.

“We wouldn’t be OK with this happening in a Third World country. This is the United States of America, and it is past time, in my opinion, that we start acting like it,” she said.

White House spokesperson Andrew Bates called Britt’s comments “debunked lies,” according to CBS News.

But Lee, R-Utah, defended Britt in a post on X, saying, “It seems the MSM would rather attack @SenKatieBritt than acknowledge the Biden policies subjecting countless women and girls to rape and sex slavery. #BidenOwnedMedia.”

On Monday, CNN posted an interview with the woman at the center of Britt’s story. Karla Jacinto told CNN that Britt’s use of her story was “not fair.”

“I hardly ever cooperate 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,” Jacinto said.

Jacinto continued, “I work as a spokesperson for many victims who have no voice, and I really would like them to be empathetic: all the governors, all the senators, to be empathetic with the issue of human trafficking because there are millions of girls and boys who disappear all the time. People who are really trafficked and abused, as she (Britt) mentioned. And I think she (Britt) should first take into account what really happens before telling a story of that magnitude.”

NPR reported that Britt did meet with Jacinto during a trip to the U.S. border with Mexico.

“I very clearly said I spoke with a woman who said she was trafficked when she was 12, so I didn’t say a teenager, I didn’t say a young woman, a grown woman,” Britt told Fox News.