'Americans Are Scraping By': Republicans Respond to Biden’s State of the Union

Sitting at her kitchen table in Alabama, Senator Katie Britt called U.S. President Joe Biden a “dithering and diminished leader” and warned of a bleak American future under his presidency in the Republican rebuttal to his State of the Union address Thursday evening. The first-term Alabama Republican, the youngest woman in the Senate, delivered a stinging election-year critique of the president. She argued that “the country we know and love seems to be slipping away" and appealed directly to mothers, who she said are probably “disgusted” with Washington. Britt, a 42-year-old former congressional staffer and mother of two, was elected to the Senate in 2022 with former President Donald Trump’s endorsement. She promised to come to Washington as a “momma on a mission” and has carved out a unique role in the GOP conference as an adviser to Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and an experienced former aide on the Senate Appropriations Committee.