'It's Kind of Rich'—AL Sen. Katie Britt Calls Out the Hypocrisy of Democrats Running off to Munich

With her colleague Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) favored to win the Alabama governorship, Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) is stepping into her senior senator shoes. Britt appeared this morning on Fox News Sunday to discuss the partial government shutdown which has affected TSA, FEMA, and the Coast Guard. Britt was quick to hold her Democrat colleagues accountable for this, citing their failure to negotiate in good faith to resolve funding.

 On Friday, Britt took to the Senate floor and called out the Democrats' political posturing in slow-rolling the already shortened two-week process to resolve the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding. 

Britt said:

Look, I'm going to say it one more time: We wanted more time. Democrats asked for two weeks. Our concern was that two weeks wasn't long enough.

It took the Democrats a week to articulate what it is they wanted. They articulated it via press conference and via tweet, not by conversation. Let's be clear: Not by conversation.

Then it took them a number of more days, from Wednesday to Saturday to come up with legislative text.

Democrat senators dug in their heels concerning their so-called ICE reforms and blocked the passage of DHS funding. Despite the fact that the agencies that would be affected have nothing to do with Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Border Patrol. Britt affirmed the Republicans' resolve not to allow ICE to become the political football that Democrats were trying to make it, telling host Shannon Bream, "[W]hat our Democratic colleagues have to realize is that we're not going to walk away from enforcing the law." 

Britt then pointed out to Bream the hypocrisy of these same Democrats rushing off to Europe for the 2026 Munich Security Conference, while leaving sectors of American national security up in the air.

Britt continued,

 And when we talk about these different things, and they're looking at it, they know that... it's kind of rich to be honest with you, to watch so many of them having flown off to Munich, to talk about national security on the world stage, but yet failing to fund our own here at home. They know that ICE and CBP will continue to be funded throughout this, but they know that the other things that keep Americans safe will not. And that actual American workers, TSA agents, will be the ones paying the price. 

Bingo. Exhibit A: Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), who rushed off to Munich to be a part of the conference. Once there, Slotkin spouted off to Bloomberg that “alienating allies” is bad for U.S. national security, telling the outlet, “I think it takes a long time to build trust and an instant to lose it.” 

We suspect that the TSA agents across Michigan's three major airports have lost their trust. It absolutely screams failure of leadership when an elected representative absconds to a foreign country to badmouth and decry the lack of leadership in their own. Slotkin and her fellow Democrats' priorities are clearly not the American people, no matter how they try to pretend otherwise.

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Britt continued to bring home the Republicans' commitment to keep Americans safe, as well as to continue to forge ahead with good-faith negotiations with the Democrats to bring this shutdown to an end sooner than the last one.

Look, we believe that local, state law enforcement should work together with federal law enforcement, that's why we don't believe in sanctuary cities. We believe sanctuary cities are the root cause of so much of what we're seeing today. We're not going to back away from that. We've come to the table with good faith propositions that we feel like, keep our law enforcement officers safe and keep American citizens safe, which is our priority, and I hope that Democrats will join us. If they continue to play politics, Shannon, and it's unfortunate, because American people will be the ones who'll pay the price.

.@SenKatieBritt: "It's kind of rich, to be honest with you, to watch so many [Democrats] having flown off to Munich to talk about national security on the world stage — but yet failing to fund our own here at home." pic.twitter.com/lIqE8RDaNl

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 15, 2026

Britt's entire Friday speech on the Senate floor was quite fiery and has been making the rounds because of her condemnation of Democrats' political posturing. She said in part,

There is no way that you can't say we're working in good faith. We want to continue this conversation, but yet you're penalizing a TSA agent? A TSA agent is gonna go without a paycheck. Why? So that you can posture politically. I'm over it! Everybody on that side of the aisle knows that ICE and CBP will continue to be funded. They are going to continue to enforce the law just as they should. Who's gonna pay the price? It's the TSA agent. It's the person working at FEMA, who already went FORTY-THREE days without a paycheck. Who's trying to figure out how to make things work. I have reports of TSA agents sleeping in their cars because they can't afford gas. Selling plasma to make their bills. Guys, come on. We're asking to continue a conversation.