Katie Britt’s Strange Speech

Elaina Plott Calabro: “It was just five days ago that Newt Gingrich was imagining the possibilities for Britt’s future, framing the freshman senator from Alabama’s coming rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address as her ‘big audition.’ ‘It will be interesting to see if Britt rises to the occasion,’ the former House speaker had mused to a New York talk-radio host.’“If she does, it will be a major step up in her potentially being Trump’s vice-presidential candidate.'”

“When I called Gingrich this morning and asked if Britt had, in fact, risen to the occasion last night, he sounded flustered. ‘Ah, well, um, I don’t have any comment right now, thank you.’ He hung up.”

“Gingrich is far from the only Republican skirting on-the-record conversations today about Britt’s performance. The Alabamian’s 17-minute address, delivered from her own kitchen, surprised many in the party for its tonal confusion and the dramatic affectations that often distracted from the message itself—a party-line discourse on illegal immigration and the imperiled future of American families. The speech has been mocked widely on social media and cable news, including by various right-wing commentators. But lawmakers and other prominent Republicans—those who had cast the event as Britt’s potential star turn—have mostly stayed quiet.”