Key events
Katie Britt’s SOTU story about child sex abuse criticized by victim
Good morning US politics readers. A sex trafficking victim has criticized the Republican senator Katie Britt after the lawmaker inaccurately used her story in her rebuttal to Joe Biden’s State of the Union address as part of an attack on his border control policies.
In that speech, Britt described traveling to the Del Rio sector of the US-Mexico border and cited the case of a woman who had been sex-trafficked at age 12 and raped multiple times. The senator implied these were a direct result of the ongoing crisis at the border, which Republicans have sought to exploit as a campaign issue.
Britt’s communications director confirmed that she was talking about Karla Jacinto Romero, an activist who has publicly recounted her experiences on numerous occasions at the hands of sex traffickers in her native Mexico. In May 2015, Romero testified to a congressional subcommittee describing her experiences at the hands of a trafficker who held her captive between the ages of 12 and 16, before she was eventually rescued.
Romero, in an interview with CNN on Sunday, said legislators lack empathy when using the issue of human trafficking for political purposes. She said:
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.
On Sunday, Britt sought to defend her comments, arguing that she had not intended to suggest that the trafficking and rape in question had happened Biden’s watch. The senator told Fox News she had recounted the victim’s story to “bring some light to” sex trafficking by cartels.
Here’s what is happening today:
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11am. Joe Biden will deliver remarks to the National League of Cities at the Marriott Marquis in DC.
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11.45am. Biden will depart DC for Manchester, New Hampshire
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2.30pm. The Senate intelligence committee has an open hearing on worldwide threats. The House rules committee will meet to prepare several measures for floor consideration.
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2.30pm. Biden will deliver remarks on lowering costs for American families in Goffstown, New Hampshire.
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3.35pm. Biden will participate in a campaign event in Manchester.