Democratic congressmen noted that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s visit to the U.S. capital was a decision to politicize relations between Mexico and the United States and a distraction amid the COVID-19 epidemic, while Donald Trump’s team used the Mexican representative’s speech to promote themselves to electoral on Twitter.
The Hispanic Caucus in Congress, an organization of 38 Democratic lawmakers whose goal is to give the Hispanic population a voice and foster an inclusive agenda, said the meeting with President López Obrador “distracts attention from what is really urgent. Right now, the focus should be on the mishandling of the pandemic, especially the crisis in Texas and Arizona, states with a very important Latino population,” he said.
Read more ‘Forecasts failed, we don’t fight and we’re friends’: AMLO about Trump
After criticism of President Trump for inviting Lopez Obrador amid the pandemic, the U.S. media touched the issue little. None of the major national newspapers published the matter on its cover. The minds of Americans are in the pandemic, in a Supreme Court decision allowing them not to give contraception by claiming religious beliefs and in presidential strife.
Comments from both Democratic and Republican groups about the visit were efidry and during Lopez Obrador’s stay in Washington DC, the focus subsequently returned to local affairs.
The lawmaker headed by the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel, said democrats’ statements about the Mexican president’s visit were a disgrace. “We should all be proud of the relationships of these two leaders (referring to Trump and AMLO) to handle such sensitive issues as the coronavirus and the trade treaty, which they have faced fairly and successfully.”
The meeting was so that they would finally meet and sit down to work in a one-to-one meeting on an entire set of important issues, the lawmaker who is also the niece of Senator Mitt Romney and granddaughter of former Michigan Governor George Romney told Fox News.
Democratic Congressman Raul M. Grijalva said Trump came to the presidency calling Mexicans criminals, drug dealers and rapists, so he lamented the Mexican president’s visit.
“AMLO has become nothing more than Trump’s collaborator and has voluntarily executed Trump’s plan across the border,” the lawmaker said.
“This is a slap in the slaps for Mexicans, Mexican Americans, and all migrants living on the U.S. border on Mexican soil who are fighting for their lives while they wait for their asylum opportunity in the United States,” insisted the Arizona District Congressman.
Meanwhile, Democratic lawmaker Chuy Garcia was surprised by Lopez Obrador’s words of thanks to Trump considering the US president’s “attacks” on the Mexican community.
“President Trump has insulted and attacked Mexico and Mexican Americans for years. It’s hard to believe that President López Obrador is falling in love with him… They both seem to need a distraction,” the Chicago congressman said of the meeting of both representatives.
.@RepChuyGarcia on the relationship between the U.S. & Mexican presidents:
“Pres. Trump has insulted and attacked Mexico & Mexican Americans for years now. It’s hard to believe that Pres. Lopez Obrador is falling for it… It seems that both of them had a need for a distraction” pic.twitter.com/twj2xbXVbK
— Washington Journal (@cspanwj) July 9, 2020
Trump account campaigns with AMLO visit
Donald Trump’s campaign team used some of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s speech on his visit to the White House to promote the U.S. representative.
The official Spanish account the campaign uses for the Hispanic population responded to criticism from his adversary, Democratic presidential candidate and former vice president Joe Biden, who signaled Trump to “propagate racism” against the Latino community.
“We need to work in partnership with Mexico. We need to restore dignity and humanity in our immigration system. That’s what I’m going to do as president,” Biden promised in a tweet.
However, The Trump campaign team placed a snippet of the speech where Lopez Obrador thanks the president of the United States for the “understanding and respect” for Mexicans.
“In fact, Joe, while you’ve been making empty promises to Hispanics for decades, President Trump has kept our community,” the campaign account replied.
Actually Joe, while you’ve spent decades making empty promises to Hispanics, President Trump has actually delivered for our community.
That’s why President López Obrador said today that @realDonaldTrump has treated Mexicans with “understanding” and “respect.” https://t.co/QINiFxxPZ3 pic.twitter.com/qadIKZ85At
— Trump Team – Text VAMOS to 88022 (@EquipoTrump) July 8, 2020
According to a news agency report AfpWhite House spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany told reporters that paying for the border wall Trump wants to build to curb illegal immigration and drug trafficking was not the subject to be discussed at the meeting between the two officers, while she was present.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador traveled to the United States on the night of July 7 to meet with President Donald Trump to commemorate the entry into force of the Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada. The Canadian representative, Justin Trudeau, was also invited, but decided not to attend. His reasons were that leaving his country would involve being quarantined upon his return, and he mentioned that he was unhappy with the tariffs Trump intended to impose on Canadian steel and aluminum.
On his trip to the United States, President López Obrador traveled with Mexican businessmen, who dined at the White House with Trump. Meanwhile, outside the Abraham Lincoln Memorial, where López Obrador went to leave a flower offering, Mexican resident workers, asked him to come over to ask him to press for those who serve as essential workers in the pandemic to do their jobs without fear of deportation.
“He may not be able to talk to us now, but we’re sure he’s going to do it and he’s going to see for our interests, he already knows who we are and what we’re asking for,” said Juan José Gutiérrez, president of the full rights coalition for undocumented workers.
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