|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
During a 15 minute interview with Axios reporter Stef Kight on Monday, Alabama Senator Katie Britt discussed her thoughts about the upcoming elections, her time in the Senate so far, and her policy goals as a legislator.
When asked about Republican candidate Donald Trump’s pick of Ohio Senator JD Vance as his running mate, Britt told Kight, “Oh, he’s going to be tremendous.”
Vance will be “tremendous when it comes to the policy issues, tremendous when it comes to telling a story, and tremendous when it comes to connecting with hard-working Americans, with parents, with families,” she rattled off.
While Vance’s history as a “never-Trumper” who once said Trump “might be America’s Hitler” and his 2022 arguments against no-fault divorce have drawn some criticism, Britt joins most Republicans in supporting his candidacy.
Britt also stayed firmly within the Republican mainstream for the remainder of the interview, but tended to focus her answers on family and maternal policy issues.
“I remember when my husband and I were looking to send our kids to daycare,” Britt said when asked about the cost of living. “I mean, it felt like we needed to take out a second mortgage.”
Britt also talked about the effects of social media on children’s mental health. Britt has repeatedly pushed for restrictions on minors’ social media use since she was elected.
The Protecting Kids on Social Media Act she champions currently has as many Democratic cosponsors as Republican ones, and Britt was fairly optimistic about the potential for bipartisan consensus on household issues.
“I’m going to continue, when I share a common goal with someone, even if they have a different letter beside their name, I’m going to get in a room with them and try to figure out a path forward,” Britt promised.
Britt then discussed how she has already tried to support bipartisan legislation as a first-term senator, pointing both to the NIH IMPROVE Act she introduced with Senator Laphonza Butler, D-Calif., and the Rural Obstetrics Readiness Act she introduced alongside Senator Maggie Hassan, D-N.H.
“We have the highest maternal mortality, Alabama does, than any other state in the nation,” Britt said. “It disproportionately affects Black women. And in 2024, this should be going in the opposite direction.”
When Kight tried to push Britt on abortion access, as the new Republican platform no longer calls for a national abortion ban, Britt said “President Trump has set the agenda” and that “we’ll continue to work to find ways to protect life.”
After Kight pointed out that voters in many states, including Republican-leaning states like Ohio and Kentucky, have voted to expand or protect constitutional protections for abortion, Britt referred to a supposed messaging problem. “We’ve got to do a better job telling our story, but that’s exactly what Roe was for [sic] is to return these rights to the state,” she said.
“I am proud to be pro-life and am really proud of what our party stands for,” Britt stated. “We are the party of life, the party of parents, the party of families.”
