When debut flops: Katie Britt is the latest in a long line of failed opening acts

Senator Katie Britt, Republican of Alabama, was not done with her breathless, overdramatized and fact-questioned response to President Biden’s State of the Union address last week, as ridicule and criticism poured in from Republicans and Democrats alike .

Her speech from a strangely empty kitchen was stilted and awkwardly shrill. She spoke in apocalyptic terms. And, as one freelance journalist soon discovered, she used a misleading narrative about sex trafficking to criticize border policy, falsely implying that it had occurred in the United States under Mr. Biden. In fact, it happened in Mexico many years ago, during the administration of President George W. Bush.

“We wouldn’t approve of this happening in a Third World country,” Ms. Britt said from her kitchen table in Montgomery, Alabama. “This is the United States of America.”

Now the senator’s nationally televised speech — delivered before she had even delivered her first speech on the Senate floor — has been etched into the public consciousness as a defining moment of her early days on the national political stage. It will undoubtedly cast a shadow over her burgeoning career in the Senate, the only thing most Americans know about her.

But Ms. Britt is not the first female freshman Republican senator from the South who, eager to immediately rise to prominence, organized a high-profile introductory event that went awry and left an indelible mark on her career.

Her story is reminiscent of that of Florida Sen. Paula Hawkins, a member of the Class of 1980 who carried Republicans to the Senate majority on the heels of Ronald Reagan. In an effort to quickly reinforce her conservative bona fides, Ms. Hawkins arranged a luncheon in 1981 to promote her first major legislative initiative: a criminal crackdown on food stamp fraud.

In an epic case of setting the wrong tone, her menu of New York strip steaks, asparagus and fresh strawberries served in an ornate Senate dining room clashed terribly with her message to jail those “really greedy” Americans who were abusing food stamps . She took a beating in the media for what became known as the ‘Steak and Jail’ lunch – named after the then-popular Steak and Ale restaurant chain. It became part of Senate lore and featured prominently in stories when Ms. Hawkins died in 2009.

Ms. Britt has now, in more ways than one, followed in Ms. Hawkins’ footsteps as a conservative female senator from the South. She experiences a similar moment, as her tone, choice of venue and the content of her speech fuel ongoing criticism.

Her claims were intensely investigated and quickly unraveled, leading to widespread criticism and even an outcry from the victim whose suffering Ms. Britt had recounted.

After independent journalist Jonathan M. Katz discovered and announced Ms. Britt’s misleading comments on TikTokKarla Jacinto, the victim, accused the senator of exploiting her story.

“I think she should first take into account what is actually happening before telling a story of that magnitude,” says Ms. Jacinto told CNN in an interview.

Ms. Britt has pushed back against the criticism, saying she did not directly state that the incident occurred while Mr. Biden was president or in the United States. Her fellow Republicans have rallied around her.

“We were proud of Senator Britt,” Senator Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican and minority leader who helped select her for the speech, told reporters. “I have no criticism whatsoever of her performance. I thought it was really excellent.”

Ms. Britt has fended off reporters on Capitol Hill in recent days, but did give a wide-ranging interview about the speech and its aftermath to one of her colleagues, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, on his podcast. Although she did not directly address the part of the speech that attracted the most attention, she and Mr. Cruz were both defiant, saying the extensive reporting showed the news media was bent on censoring her.

“They want to silence a conservative woman for speaking out on this issue,” Ms. Britt told her colleague. “They don’t want to bring light and help the women who are actually being trafficked.”

“They consider you a huge threat,” Mr. Cruz replied. He added that a young Republican mother of school-aged children was a stark contrast to Mr. Biden and caricatures of Republicans.

Ms. Britt said she had never delivered a speech directly to a camera, as she did in her State of the Union rebuttal, suggesting that might explain some of her over-the-top presentation.

“My crime was putting too much passion and too much heart and soul into the issues I really care about,” she said. “They slaughtered me along the airways.”

Ms. Britt also said she was thrilled to be memorably parodied on “Saturday Night Live” by actress Scarlett Johansson, one of the stars of the “Avengers” film franchise.

“I was actually pretty excited about that,” Ms. Britt told Mr. Cruz.

The question is what impact, if any, the speech will have on her career and reputation in the Senate — and her chances of rising in Republican politics. Others have survived and even benefited from similar experiences.

Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, went viral after he had to awkwardly reach for a bottle of water while delivering the party’s response to the State of the Union in 2013. He turned that around by selling personalized water bottles, raising tens of thousands of euros. of dollars. Representative Joe Wilson, Republican of South Carolina, was formally reprimanded by the House of Representatives in 2009 for shouting “you’re lying” to President Barack Obama during a special health care address, but he also raised money for the episode.

On Capitol Hill, Ms. Britt was not seen as a MAGA rabble-rouser when she entered the Senate. Ms. Britt, a protege of former Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, the longtime dealmaker she served as his chief of staff, was billed as a conservative but likely pragmatic successor to her mentor. Democrats who have dealt with Ms. Britt have been reluctant to go further, saying they believe her staff received poor advice in crafting the speech.

And while Ms. Britt’s veracity is widely disputed, the speech, the response and her harsh criticism of Mr. Biden are likely to make her a star in many Republican circles. This week, a fundraising email for the Trump campaign was sent in her name, noting that she and Mr. Biden “painted two very different visions for America.” She is also quickly becoming one of the party’s leading voices on border issues.

As for Ms. Hawkins, she did not shy away from conservative outspokenness during her time in the Senate, despite the lunchtime gaffe. However, she was defeated after one term, losing to Bob Graham, a Democrat and a popular governor.

Ms. Hawkins eventually recognized the error of her ways when it came to her big debut.

“It was the wrong setting to make such an announcement,” she admitted.