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Not a Texas story afterall
It did not happen in Del Rio.
By now, you've probably seen and heard a lot about U.S. Sen. Katie Britt's response to President Joe Biden's State of the Union Address. During her speech, she said she went to the Del Rio sector where she met with a human trafficking victim who detailed all kinds of horrors that happened to her.
"President Biden's border policies are a disgrace," Britt, an Alabama Republican, dramatically said at the end of the story.
But Britt didn't mention that the story she was recounting had nothing to do with Del Rio, Eagle Pass or even the Texas border. As journalist Jonathan Katz pointed out on TikTok, she was recounting a story that anti-trafficking advocate Karla Jacinto has told many times to many audiences over the last decade. Jacinto was talking about what happened to her in Mexico from 2004 to 2008.
None of it happened in Texas, though Jacinto told Britt the story while she and two other U.S. Senators were touring Eagle Pass in January 2023.
On Fox News Sunday, Britt was asked if she was misleading people by suggesting the events happened during Biden's tenure.
"No," Britt answered. "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."
Here's a link to the video with more on Britt's trip to the border with U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss. In the video, you will see Britt meeting with Jacinto as part of the trip.
 | Jeremy Wallace, Texas politics reporter |
Who's up, who's down
Up: Greg Abbott.
There were 24 Republicans in the Texas House who stood firm against school vouchers last year despite all the political pressure and special sessions. But after Abbott declared war on most of them, there are now just six who won their primaries last week, according to Edward McKinley. Some retired, others are in runoffs, but it all vastly improves Abbott's chances of finally getting his expanded Educational Savings Accounts program passed in the legislature to give parents state funding to partially pay for private schools.
Down: Katie Britt.
There are a million ways to criticize President Joe Biden on the border. Yet, the Alabama Republican repurposed a real story from a real victim of human trafficking from Mexico almost 20 years ago to make it sound like it happened in Texas during Biden's tenure.
What do you think? Hit reply and let me know.
What else is going on in Texas
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Pick of the day
Photo by: Jeremy Wallace
That is the percentage of women in the Texas Legislature, ranking it 33rd in the nation compared to other state legislatures, according to Rutgers University's Center for American Women and Politics. That puts Texas behind other big states like California (42%), Florida (41%) and New York (34%). And what can I say about West Virginia, which the Associated Press pointed out has just 12% of its members being women?
What else I'm reading
State Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, told Jason Whitely at Inside Politics on WFAA in Dallas that while the state is closer than ever to passing a school voucher program, there is going to have to be a major investment in public education too, including raises for teachers, ending the STAAR test and improving school security.
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