Even Republicans Thought Katie Britt Bombed

The Alabama Senator gave the GOP response to Biden's State of the Union address and her overly dramatic delivery will no doubt get spoofed on SNL.

By Susan Rinkunas  |  March 8, 2024 | 2:04pm
Photo: Screenshot/CNN Politics
Even Republicans Thought Katie Britt Bombed

Welcome back to Barf Bag. 

Thursday night was the State of the Union and, when it came to abortion, Joe Biden served what I can only describe as a vanilla ice cream cone: It gave you a little sugar high, but then quickly made you feel unwell. Not once did Biden say the word “abortion” and while he did dunk on the Supreme Court, he also pledged to pass legislation to fix the abortion crisis that those very same justices will likely strike down. (Also, his entire plan to win re-election seems to hinge on women…voting harder?)

The opposing party traditionally does a response to the President’s speech and whew, Republicans chose Alabama Sen. Katie Britt despite the fact that a recent ruling from the state Supreme Court on IVF sent the party into chaos. (Britt did not address the ruling and in recent weeks actually scrubbed her website of a page saying life begins at conception.) Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters last week that Britt was a great choice to respond to Biden because she “is an unapologetic optimist.” He added that “as one of our nation’s youngest Senators, she’s wasted no time becoming a leading voice in the fight to secure a stronger American future and leave years of Washington Democrats’ failures behind.”

An optimist you say? I’m not sure if that’s how I’d describe the person behind this performance. She’s bordering on tears talking about how Chinese-owned TikTok is going to lead to the downfall of the country. She speaks as if she’s going to clutch her chest after every sentence—it’s as if she recently got coaching from a high school theater director. (Truly, look at how she talks normally!)

The jokes were abundant. Legal journalist Elie Mystal said Britt was “the kind of person who saw Goody Proctor sleeping with the Devil.” Comedian Vinny Thomas said she’s “whispering as if this isn’t even her house. She just broke into someone’s kitchen and started hissing about China.”

Even Republicans panned her speech, with a bunch of GOP strategists, pollsters, and staff telling Rolling Stone anonymously that it was a disaster:

“What the hell am I watching right now?” a Trump adviser asked, mid-Britt remarks.

“Creepy,” one of the Republican pollsters noted.

A lawyer working in the Trump orbit says the performance reminded them of public-access television, and a senior House congressional aide remarks that it was “cringe”-inducing to watch and likely destined to be turned into a “lame [Saturday Night Live] skit” this weekend.

“I’ll give Biden this — he at least gave a better speech than Katie Britt,” one national Republican consultant said bluntly.

But some in MAGA world were shitting on her publicly! Charlie Kirk said she was “hosting a cooking show” and Allie Beth Stuckey said, “the delivery was parody-level terrible.”

It’s comical until you realize that this conservative white woman sitting in her kitchen is trying to appeal to suburban moms worried about crime to tell them that Democrats are the devil. Britt called out sexual violence from cartels smuggling migrants yet she has endorsed adjudicated sexual assailant Donald Trump for president. Ma’am, make it make sense.

The picture of a cross-wearing aggrieved mom at her kitchen table is just a little too much this week after we learned that Mark Robinson, North Carolina’s GOP nominee for governor, said in 2020: “I absolutely want to go back to the America where women couldn’t vote.” I hate it here, thanks.

  • Can’t keep a diva down: Expelled member of Congress George Santos attended the State of the Union and said he’ll run again in a different district. [ABC News]
  • The estate of Sinead O’Connor told the Trump campaign never to play her music again. [BBC]
  • Human Id Calls Man’s Wife Racist Nicknames, Man Endorses Id [Washington Post]
  • Florida’s quack surgeon general Joseph Ladapo said kids exposed to measles don’t have to quarantine or get vaccinated. [Politico]
  • The co-founders of the reactionary hate group Moms for Liberty did a disastrous interview on 60 Minutes. [Mother Jones]
  • White supremacist goblin and Trump alum Stephen Miller is helping sue Paramount in a case alleging that diversity efforts for writers rooms “discriminate against straight white men.” [Hollywood Reporter]
  • The GOP Senate leadership race is now down to two Johns, which is still more than the number of Black women in the chamber. [NBC News]

This has been your weekly Barf Bag, thanks for reading! Barf Bag will be free until March 15 and then will be available to subscribers only beginning on March 22. Subscribe to Jezebel, if you haven’t already. 

 
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