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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Sunday accused Alabama Sen. Katie Britt of misrepresenting an anecdote about sex trafficking in a response to the State of the Union address to attack President Joe Biden’s record on border security. He accused them of using him in a way that would invite them.
“I’ll leave it to her to explain the misrepresentation, but I think it’s indicative of a larger problem,” Buttigieg told ABC News “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos. “She is a U.S. senator, and the U.S. Senate may be acting now to help secure our southern border.”
He highlighted that a recent bipartisan agreement on changes to the immigration system failed to pass the floor due to criticism from President Donald Trump.
Buttigieg said the proposal “included tough compromises for all sides that bases in both parties may not have liked, but that would have resulted in real positive change.” But that was only offset by the cooling effect the former president had.” He is telling Republicans in Congress not to support anything that represents a policy victory for President Biden. ” (President Trump said the proposal was insufficient to solve the problem.)
On Thursday night, while delivering the Republican Party’s official response to Biden’s State of the Union address, Britt told the story of an encounter he had with a woman at the border who told her story of being raped by a cartel starting when she was 12 years old.
According to multiple reports, including The New York Times and the Associated Press, the alleged victim Britt was referring to has documented abuse of her in the past, dating back to 2004 during the George W. Bush presidency. It states that the incident occurred in Mexico between 2008 and 2008.
The woman, a Mexican national named Carla Jacinto Romero, told the Times she found out about Britt’s comments through social media and found them “very strange.”
“I’m part of the fight to stop human trafficking, but I don’t think it should be political,” she told the paper.
In his rebuttal at the State of the Union, Britt made it seem as if Biden’s actions were related to the experiences of his victims.
“We cannot tolerate something like this happening in a third world country,” she said. “This is the United States of America, and I think it’s past time for us to start acting like that. President Biden’s border policies are a disgrace. This crisis is despicable.”
She made another Fox News appearance on Sunday, arguing that Biden’s actions made a human trafficking case more likely and defending her choice of words.
Buttigieg fired back on “This Week,” telling Stephanopoulos, “to actually work through issues with Republicans who want to keep this issue bad so they can attack the president over it.” There’s a very clear choice among Republicans who want to “at least address it better.” ”
He also noted that efforts since the Bush administration to pass bipartisan immigration reform, including this year’s Senate agreement, have failed.
“Will 2024 go down in history as yet another failed attempt at bipartisan compromise, or will Congressional Republicans follow the lead of their own negotiators and the president of the United States and actually do something? ?” Buttigieg said.
But polls show Americans are divided over who will do a better job leading the country between Biden and Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
A new ABC News/Ipsos poll found that 36% of American adults believe Mr. Trump will do a better job, while 33% say Mr. Biden will do the same and 30% say neither will lead the United States. answered that they do not trust
Republicans trust Trump (82%) and Democrats trust Biden (72%).
The poll also found that Mr. Biden trails Mr. Trump on key issues such as the economy, inflation, crime and the border.
“How do you explain that? How do you turn things around?” Stephanopoulos asked Buttigieg about “this week.”
Although he believes Biden deserves more recognition for his work on the economy, citing high job creation and low unemployment, he said, “Credibility will not improve unless we explain how it was achieved.”
“That’s one of the reasons I was so energized by the president’s State of the Union address, where he talked about the accomplishments that were accomplished on his watch and why, and then talked about the equally important accomplishments,” Buttigieg said. We talked about the future,” Buttigieg said. He said.
“Of course, it takes effort to get that story out there, especially when there’s a firehose of negativity trying to downplay the economy and change the conversation away from the president’s accomplishments,” Buttigieg later added. , called it “the politics of justice.”
He continued, “The nature of our world, and certainly the nature of today’s media environment, is that people are not just going to hand the credit to the president. We need to be there.” Told.
In his response to the State of the Union, Britt also criticized Biden for his extensive record as president, saying that Biden is “wavering and declining” and that he is better now than he was three years ago. We asked Americans whether they felt that the situation had improved. President Trump has been inaugurated.
Stephanopoulos said much of the nation seems to agree that life isn’t better now, but Buttigieg said Biden was at the worst of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and 2021. He claimed that he helped the country get out of the situation.
He also said that Biden “showed command, strength and clarity of vision” during his State of the Union address.
Mr. Stephanopoulos pressed Mr. Buttigieg on how the 81-year-old incumbent president could be a transformative candidate, a dynamic that is often “very important in presidential elections.”
Opinion polls have long shown widespread concerns about Biden’s age and suitability for another term, but the president has denied them.
“Look at the change he’s brought about. Let’s take some of the most important issues for a new generation. Climate is a good example, right?” Buttigieg responded, adding that President Biden’s other He cited LGBTQ+ rights and reproductive freedom as areas of focus.
“This is a great example of how the most important thing is the age of a leader’s ideas,” Buttigieg said.
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