Britt defends story of trafficking victim that contained inaccuracies

[RAY BOGAN]

The Republican senator who gave the rebuttal to President Biden’s State of the Union is trying to clarify a story she told in her speech after it was revealed that the story was shared out of context, with multiple inaccuracies and without permission. 

During her rebuttal, Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., strongly criticized President Biden’s border policies and said he not only created the current border crisis but invited it. Then, without naming the victim’s name, Britt shared a story she heard when visiting the border in 2023. 

[KATIE BRITT]

“I spoke to a woman who shared her story with me. She had been sex trafficked by the cartels starting at the age of 12,” Britt said in her rebuttal. “She told me not just that she was raped every day, but how many times a day she was raped.” 

[RAY BOGAN]

CNN is reporting that the woman Britt referred to is anti-human trafficking advocate Karla Jacinto who said no one asked her permission to use her story. 

Jacinto also pointed out multiple inaccuracies in the way it was portrayed. For instance, Jacinto said she was not trafficked by cartels, but by a pimp, she was never trafficked in the United States, and she was held in captivity from 2004 to 2008, not during the Biden administration. 

Jacinto strongly criticized politicians who she says only want to meet with people like her for a photo. 

[KARLA JACINTO]

“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 mentioned,” Jacinto told CNN. “And I think she should first take into account what really happens before telling a story of that magnitude.” 

[RAY BOGAN]

Britt is defending the way she told the story and denied trying to make it seem as though the story took place during the Biden administration. 

[KATIE BRITT]

“I very clearly said, ‘I spoke to a woman who told me about when she was trafficked when she was 12.’ So I didn’t say a teenager, I didn’t say a young woman, a grown woman. A woman when she was trafficked when she was 12. And so listening to her story, she was a victims rights advocate who was telling ‘this is what drug cartels are doing, this is how they’re profiting off of women.’ And it is disgusting,” Britt told Fox News Sunday. “So I am hopeful that it brings some light to it.” 

[RAY BOGAN]

During her interview, Britt again blamed President Biden for an increase in human trafficking during his administration.