President Biden on Friday described Sen. Katie Britt (Ala.), who gave the Republican response to his State of the Union address the day prior, as “talented.”
“I just saw a little bit on television,” Biden said about her 17-minute rebuttal.
“I thought she was a very talented woman,” he said, adding, “I didn’t quite understand the connections she was making.”
Britt, a first-term senator, went after Biden on Thursday night over high prices at the grocery store and gas station, the situation at the U.S. southern border and crime in cities.
The White House hit her after her speech over her stances on reproductive rights issues and the bipartisan border deal, outlining that she opposed the deal negotiated by a group of senators.
“Last month, Senator Britt sided against President Biden, the Border Patrol Union, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce by opposing the toughest bipartisan border deal in modern history — instead voting with fentanyl traffickers,” spokesperson Andrew Bates said.
Britt has been widely criticized on social media for what has been called a melodramatic and unnatural rebuttal. She was roasted as amateurish and actorly for the speech, which was delivered from the kitchen in her Montgomery, Ala., home.
Britt, an emerging rising star within the GOP, is the youngest female Republican elected to the Senate, serving as part of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) leadership team and sitting on the highly coveted Appropriations Committee.
