Louisville, Ky. — U.S. Sen. Katie Britt said Tuesday that she counts her Democratic colleagues as her best Senate friends and that cross-party ties are crucial to government, especially as social media deepens political tensions. The first-term Alabama Republican also discussed how she became a GOP conference assistant to Mitch McConnell and the necessity for U.S. power to deter foreign threats during a visit to his hometown.
Britt spoke at the University of Louisville nearly a month after criticizing Democratic President Joe Biden for her party and emphasizing the necessity of respecting others, even when they disagree.
How do we get back to that in this country, where you don't have to agree to respect someone?” she asked. Today's society makes it harder to have an open and honest conversation with someone who disagrees with you. I believe it harms our nation and our progress.”
McConnell hailed Britt as someone who had “mastered a skill that still confounds some of my colleagues — you don’t have to agree with someone to work with them.” Britt called Democratic Sens. John Fetterman, Peter Welch, and Cory Booker her “greatest friends” in the Senate. She cited her former employer, Richard Shelby, and Democratic former Sen. Patrick Leahy.
“They showed that you do not have to agree with someone to show them respect,” Britt said, adding that social media has widened the gap and made some people more for show than work.
Britt said serious conversations are needed to address many challenging issues, including as protecting the Southern border, lowering drug overdose deaths, and making housing and child care more accessible. She said Russia, China, and Iran pose threats abroad after the U.S.'s precipitous withdrawal from Afghanistan “sent shockwaves” around the world.
Britt did not comment on her March Republican rebuttal to Biden's State of the Union, which was heavily criticized for using a harrowing account of a young woman's sexual abuse to attack Biden's border policies, even though the rapes did not occur in the U.S. or during the Biden administration.
Instead, the 42-year-old mother of two said Tuesday that McConnell regarded her motherhood chats as virtues. Britt said Tuesday that what he saw as a weakness—not looking like everyone else, not being like everyone else, not having the pedigree of everyone else—was actually a strength.
Both the freshman senator and the 82-year-old McConnell are from Alabama, but the Kentucky senator said he tries to “keep that quiet up here.” Both were parodied on “Saturday Night Live.” He stated, “I know it’s going to take a lot more than a few press punches to knock her down.”
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