First appearance on Fox: CNN was forced this week to issue a correction to a report aimed at discrediting some of Alabama Republican Sen. Katie Britt’s rebuttals to the State of the Union address. In it, she included tragic stories about anonymous sex trafficking victims to highlight the ongoing impact of borders. crisis.
The sex trafficking victim, later identified as Carla Jacinto, was subjected to untold brutality at the hands of her traffickers from the age of 12 to 16 in Mexico, but Britt I explained this in detail in my rebuttal.
CNN paraded Jacinto in front of its audience over the weekend, appearing on its networks and programs. The story after that In it, he made a number of claims that attempted to derail the depiction of Britt’s story. However, these claims were in stark contrast to her past reporting on Jacinto and her own words.
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Sen. Katie Britt speaks during a press conference on border security at the U.S. Capitol on September 27, 2023. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
CNN wrote in an article after a weekend interview with Jacinto that it was inaccurate to say Britt met with Jacinto one-on-one. However, Britt never claimed in his rebuttal that they met one-on-one, only saying that he “spoke” with Jacinto during a trip to the Texas border.
Asked for comment on this inaccuracy, CNN amended the article to reflect that Britt’s assertion that the two met one-on-one was Jacinto’s view, not that of the news organization. replied. “Clarification: This article has been updated to clarify the circumstances of Britt and Jacinto’s encounter,” a note at the bottom of the article reads.
CNN also reported that Britt falsely claimed that Jacinto was trafficked by a Mexican drug cartel, although the senator never said “drug cartel” during his rebuttal. She specifically spoke of “cartels,” referring to organized crime along the border. This echoes Jacinto’s earlier description of human traffickers as a “criminal organization” in testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in May 2015.
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During the hearing, Jacinto referred to “pimps, or criminal organizations,” and said they took her 1-year-old daughter so she could continue working for them. A Fox News report later that year also detailed how Jacinto’s alleged boyfriend, a pimp, “worked as part of an international organized crime syndicate and forced Jacinto into a life of prostitution and violence.” It was done.
She also described them as a “family” of organized crime.
CNN was forced this week to issue a correction to a report that sought to discredit some of Republican Alabama Sen. Katie Britt’s rebuttals to her State of the Union address. (Reuters)
Mr. Jacinto has spoken on other occasions, including a January 2023 roundtable discussion with Mr. Britt as well as Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Mississippi). We’re talking about human trafficking. She said she was almost trafficked to the United States when she was 14 years old.
After the meeting, Hyde-Smith said: “I had the opportunity to meet a young woman. Her name was Carla. She was under the control of drug cartels and human traffickers from the age of 12 to 16; I was able to become an adult.” escape it. ”
When asked to comment on the inaccuracy, CNN issued a statement of disagreement with Fox, saying the portrayal of Fox was inaccurate.
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Additionally, CNN itself reported in September 2017 that Jacinto had been raped 43,200 times “by her own estimates” after falling into the hands of her traffickers.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Jacinto for comment. In response to a request for comment on her behalf, advocacy group Reintegra, which works with Ms. Jacinto, told Fox: “She was not under pressure or coercion, and she did not change her story in any way.” Not,” he said.
Carla Jacinto speaks during an interview in a park in Mexico City on January 4, 2018. (Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images)
The group said her story has been “consistent over the years,” adding that the CNN reporter who wrote the story is “highly reputable and trustworthy.”
“Jacinto has made it clear that she does not want to become a pawn in political debates over immigration policy or other political issues. Her focus is to open people’s eyes and inform the world about the evil of human trafficking. That is. She understands that there are people [on] “Both sides of the political aisle can and must unite in this fight for vulnerable populations,” the group said.
Although Mr. Britt did not mention Mr. Jacinto by name, the group suggested that it needed permission from Mr. Britt to use his story in a rebuttal and demanded an apology from Mr. Britt.
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“We urge Senator Britt and all those who care about vulnerable populations to take a bipartisan, multinational approach to providing safe migration and resettlement opportunities to prevent this problem. We believe that we cannot fight this common enemy.” “If we are fighting across partisan and racial lines, then we must all work together. , reject language that dehumanizes people seeking asylum and encourage others to be treated in a dignified and humane manner as we collectively work to make this world a better place. Please,” they added.
Republicans rallied around Britt this week, accusing the media of waging a “smear” campaign against him.
“Joe Biden’s policies are a gift to cartels that are doing horrible sex trafficking, and Katie Britt is absolutely right about bringing fentanyl into the United States. That’s why the media is attacking her. They wants to smear conservatives who speak out,” Sen said. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, wrote in a post about X on Monday.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo echoed Cotton’s sentiments, saying, “The media is targeting Sen. Katie Britt because she is a strong conservative who has told the truth about open borders. And Katie is exactly right. These border policies have been a disaster for our people.” American people. ”
Britt also responded to the media’s apparent blitzkrieg against her, telling Fox that “the media has stopped covering Joe Biden’s re-election campaign, and it’s a shame about the immense and very real human suffering that’s happening right now.” “It’s past time to start talking about suffering.”
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“Cartels are making record-breaking profits from human trafficking. Migrants are dying at the border in historic numbers. And between brutal murders and fentanyl poisoning, too many Americans are being killed. “That’s the story the media doesn’t want to tell” — and now they’re trying to silence me for telling it,” she added.
Britt, long seen as a rising star within the Republican Party, has been rumored to be a potential running mate for former President Donald Trump in this November’s general election.
