Katie Britt, With Smiles and Menace, Delivers G.O.P. Response to Biden

Senator Katie Britt of Alabama criticized President Biden as ill-equipped to lead the country in a speech on Thursday that served as both a rebuke to his State of the Union address and an introduction to the nation by a politician many Republicans have seen as a rising young star.

“Our commander in chief is not in command,” Ms. Britt said in the Republican Party’s official response to Mr. Biden’s speech. “The free world deserves better than a dithering and diminished leader.”

Ms. Britt delivered an uneven speech, toggling between a wide, often strained smile and a furrowed brow paired with a fierce glare as she delivered ominous warnings about illegal immigration. Heading into the evening, she had been mentioned as a potential running mate for former President Donald J. Trump, who has all but locked up his third consecutive Republican nomination.

Ms. Britt, 42, won her first elected office in 2022, becoming Alabama’s first female senator and the youngest Republican woman elected to the chamber. Speaker Mike Johnson noted in announcing that she would give the State of the Union response that she was the “only current Republican mom of school-age kids serving in the Senate.”