U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, R-Alabama, speaks to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on July 15, 2024. (Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
At several points in this recent New York Times profile of Katie Britt, I had to stop my eyebrows from hitting the ceiling.
The piece traces the rise and fall of Britt’s interest in Liam Ramos, the 5-year-old Minneapolis child apprehended by ICE agents in January. As a reminder, the agents locked this boy up and used him as bait to arrest other members of his family.
In the profile, Britt at first expresses worries about this young boy. She directs her staff to look into his case.
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“I’m sorry,” she says at one point, with tears in her eyes. “I just keep thinking about that child.”
Alabama’s soon-to-be senior U.S. senator calls DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, a particularly untrustworthy member of an administration of unreliable narrators.
Noem tells her that the agents followed proper procedures. She says the ICE agents who seized and traumatized Ramos took care of him. Oh, and reporting on this child had been contorted.
“This is so helpful to hear,” Britt says in response.
And … that’s it. Ordered to ignore the evidence of her eyes, the senator agrees.
By the end of the story, Britt can’t even tell the Times that she was happy with Ramos’ eventual release.
“Look, I believe in the law,” she reiterated again and again. “I believe in the enforcement of the law.”
It’s a pretty damning portrait. Britt may have had a sincere interest in Ramos. But she didn’t demand answers. She sought permission. It seems she wanted assurance that using cruel and degrading rhetoric about immigrants would not lead to real-world harms.
This may sound harsh. But remember Britt’s own harsh rhetoric.
She speaks of immigrants without legal status as violent criminals. (Say it with me, everyone: Immigrants without legal status are much less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans.) She said on Newsmax last year that “nobody has the right to be an American citizen.” (The 14th Amendment disagrees.) And she gives uncritical, 100% support to a white nationalist who tells crowds that immigrants without status are “poisoning the blood of our country.”
Britt and other people argue in the piece (and this recent NPR profile) that adoration of Donald Trump can lead to better policy outcomes for Alabama. Get on his side, and you can secure some quiet wins for Alabama. Like using Trump to urge reversal of an effective judicial ban on in-vitro fertilization.
The problem is that Trump’s policies hurt Alabama. We need something more than isometric jujitsu from our leaders.
Alabama lawmakers were moving to remove the IVF ban before Trump weighed in, but there’s more. It’s nice Britt pushed to reverse a pause in National Institute of Health funding, but the NIH cuts were terrible for state universities. Our Republican-dominated congressional delegation hasn’t challenged Trump’ right to make similar attacks in the future.
Britt called the removal of Air Force material on the Tuskegee Airmen “malicious compliance” with Trump’s DEI orders. Yet the University of Alabama is citing Trump’s hatred of all things DEI to drive Black and LGBTQ+ students out of public spaces. with no visible pushback from GOP lawmakers. Trump’s tariffs are hurting farmers and manufacturers in the state while raising prices for consumers. After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Trump’s tariff scheme last month, Britt confidently announced that “Trump’s tariffs work” without bothering to explain how.
If you care about Alabama, a bit of pleading or minor changes at the margins isn’t enough. Britt belongs to a co-equal branch of the federal government. She doesn’t have to turn into Elizabeth Warren to draw some clear lines on behalf of the people and businesses here.
And this representation-by-court-intrigue approach raises another question. Is Britt the mother weeping over a little boy? Or is she the person who attacked “sanctuary cities” and “illegal criminals” a week after the Times profile ran? Politicians alter their messages for different audiences, but moving from tears over a child’s treatment at the hands of immigration authorities to openly cheering their strategy is quite the discordant tonal shift. And it makes it hard to figure out where she stands.
Worse for Britt, this approach may not work. When the senator rightly condemned a racist video posted to Trump’s Truth Social account, the president said Britt was dead to him. Britt’s office called it fake news, only for far-right MAGA influencer Laura Loomer — an actual Trump whisperer — to attack Britt on social media.
Britt is clearly modeling her Senate service on former U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, for whom she worked as chief of staff. Shelby amassed a conservative record during his time in the chamber, but his real focus was securing federal money for Alabama while stamping his name, Ozymandias-like, all over the state.
No doubt Britt would prefer to spend her time announcing projects in Alabama. And to do that, she needs to keep the president and the base voters happy.
Yet that makes it hard to figure out who she’s working for. Right now, it looks like Britt is supporting an administration that hurts her constituents and treats her like a fool. And it’s not at all clear what Alabama gains from that.
From Alabama Reflector Post Url: Visit
Author: Brian Lyman