President Trump on Monday rejected a request by the Hispanic Caucus of Congress to cancel his meeting on Wednesday with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Trump denied the request in a handwritten message written on top of a press release from members of the Democratic committee.
“CHC – Thanks for your very good letter. He is my friend and a wonderful man. I hope to meet the president, it will be good + important for both Mexico and the United States, “wrote Trump.
The response was sent to the committee chairman, Representative Joaquín Castro (D-Texas).
Last week, Castro led a dozen fellow Democrats from the group, including New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to ask Trump to cancel López Obrador.
López Obrador should not be invited because the visit “is nothing more than an attempt to distract himself from the coronavirus crisis and his inability to adequately respond to the pandemic,” Democrats wrote to Trump.
The pandemic is “decimating Latino communities,” they wrote.
“Furthermore, any meeting with the President of Mexico must include an explanation of why the Pentagon maintains up to 4,000 soldiers on the border,” the Democrats said.
Castro is the brother of the failed Democratic presidential candidate Julián Castro.
López Obrador, in office since 2018, is a veteran of left-wing politics and is often compared to Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Plan to fly commercial to DC.
It will be the second visit by a world leader since the coronavirus pandemic began in March. Polish President Andrzej Duda visited last month.
Last week, López Obrador ruled out Trump’s past conviction for crimes linked to illegal Mexican immigrants and his promise to make Mexico pay for his border wall.
“There has been respect from President Donald Trump towards our government,” the Mexican president told reporters. “There has been a relationship of mutual respect; I will not say more. Even President Trump’s rhetoric towards Mexico has been more respectful than the way he expressed himself before, something for which we are very grateful. “
Although a Mexican leader has not yet visited Trump at the White House, candidate Trump visited Mexico at the invitation of then President Enrique Peña Nieto in 2016. A televised press conference was relatively quiet and attracted few protesters.
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