March 7 (UPI) — Sen. Katie Britt delivered the Republicans’ response to President Joe Biden‘s state of the Union on Thursday night, arguing the commander in chief is out of touch with the American people, cannot understand what they are going through and is unable to lead.
From her brightly lit kitchen in Alabama, Britt, the youngest Republican in the senate at 42 years of age and the first woman elected to the chamber from her state, projected an imagine of youth and vitality in contrast to the 81-year-old president, whom the GOP has been arguing during this election year is too old to serve a second term.
She spoke about a half hour after Biden completed his annual speech to Congress, with the GOP response being a tradition that goes back to 1966, according to the Senate’s website.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a joint statement that the freshman senator and one of the youngest in the body represent the next generation of new, optimistic leaders in the party.
Britt, an attorney and former long-time staffer for former Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, won her boss’s old Senate seat in 2022 when he retired.
During her rebuttal, Britt emphasized Biden’s age and profession as a career politician “who has actually been in office for longer than I’ve been alive” to say that he is too distant to understand those he serves. In an effort to undercut his arguments that the economy has strengthened, people are safer than they were and the U.S. position in the world has improved, all under his watch, Britt said Americans don’t feel that to be true.
“One thing is quite clear though: President Biden just doesn’t get it. He’s out of touch,” she said.
“Under his administraiton, families are worse off, our communities are less safe and our country is less secure. I just wish he understood what real families are facing around kitchen tables, just like this one.”
She pointed to the border as a failure of the Biden administration arguing the surge in migrants was not simply a creation by Biden’s policies but a problem “he invited.”
She called his policies a “disgrace” and the crisis “despicable,” while tying the border to the safety of Americans.
“From fentanyl poisonings to horrific murders, there are empty chairs tonight at kitchen tables just like this one.”
Britt also directly attacked Biden’s record on the economy. While indicators show the U.S. economy is improving, she said Americans know this to be false.
“The American people are scraping by while President Biden claims that Bidenomics is working. Goodness, y’all. Bless his heart. We. Know. Better,” she said.
“Let’s be honest: It’s been a minute since Joe Biden pumped gas, ran a carpool or even pushed a grocery cart. Meanwhile, the rest of us see our dollar and we know it doesn’t go as far.”
On foreign relations, Britt said Biden was making the United States “a punchline on the world stage,” stating he was pursuing a “strategy of appeasement,” which has contributed to the ongoing international crises.
And she also returned to Biden’s age to frame him and his leadership as frail and weak in terms of defense and that adversaries were taking notice.
“Right now, our commander in chief is not in command. The free world deserves better than a dithering and diminished leader,” she said. “America deserves leaders who recognize that secure borders, stable prices, safe streets and a strong defense are actually the cornerstones of a great nation.”
On the issue of reproductive rights, she said the Republican Party wants families to grow, and that is why they are in favor of in vitro fertilization, which has been an issue for the GOP after her state’s Supreme Court ruled last month that frozen embryos are children under state law.
Near the end of her speech, after having laid out a grim picture of the current state of the United States, Britt made a direct appeal to mothers specifically and parents generally in an effort to galvanize their support for the GOP, stating that their issues are those of the Republican Party.
“First of all, we see you. We hear you. And we stand with you,” she said.
She then called on them to “get into the arena” for the sake of their children and grandchildren.
“Every generation has been called to do hard things. American greatness rests in the fact that we always answer that call. It’s who we are,” she said.