Britt says Mike Johnson told her ‘it will be fine’ ahead of SOTU response

Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) said Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) reassured her that everything “will be fine” before she delivered the State of the Union response last week that has since been ridiculed online.

Britt spoke with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on his latest podcast episode that aired Wednesday, discussing her experience with preparing for the rebuttal and the scrutiny that immediately followed it. She said Johnson had called her to ask if she could deliver the response, telling her she had nothing to worry about.

“And the funny thing is he’s like, you know, ‘Don’t worry about, you know, people are going to tell you horror stories about all of these things that happen and people’s career being blown up over it,’ and he’s like, ‘It’ll be fine. It’ll be fine,’” she said.

“And he was … so kind and just and really welcoming. And you know, I think it was a great conversation. But the irony that he’s like, ‘Don’t you worry,'” she added.

She also said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called her before Johnson did to ask if she could deliver the rebuttal. She described being asked as an “out of body experience,” but asked McConnell if she could have some time to think about it.

“And so I talked to both of them and obviously, then finally accepted doing it, but still kind of thought, ‘Is this even for real?’ I mean, I haven’t even given a floor speech yet, you know at the Senate yet, but was excited,” she said. “And particularly as you … mentioned earlier, being you know, the only Republican female with school-aged kids and kind of bringing that like next-generation voice.”

Britt’s rebuttal to President Biden’s State of the Union address was met with sharp backlash and scrutiny for what many described as an unnatural delivery. Actress Scarlett Johansson portrayed Britt in the cold open for “Saturday Night Live,” mocking the junior senator for the response delivered from her kitchen table.

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Britt laughed about Johansson’s parody of her, saying she was “pretty pumped” the actress played her on “Saturday Night Live.”

“And I said you know, look, it could be worse. I mean, Scarlett Johansson. Here, you have ‘Black Widow.’ They bring in someone from ‘Avengers’ to play me in the cold open. I’m here for it,” she said.

The Hill has reached out to Johnson for comment.