Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Thursday called on Hispanic people in Florida to vote against Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who launched his 2024 White House bid the day before, because of his immigration policies.
(The Hill).- “Hopefully Hispanics in Florida will wake up and not give him one single vote, to not vote for those who persecute migrants, those who don’t respect migrants,” López Obrador said.
Speaking at his daily hours-long press conference, López Obrador addressed DeSantis’s political future, saying the governor had “uncovered” himself, using Mexican political slang for a candidate’s announcement, and taking credit for predicting DeSantis’s presidential run.
“As you can see I wasn’t wrong that all his politicking over migrants was because he wanted to be the Republican Party’s candidate,” López Obrador said.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador speaks during the North America Summit, at the National Palace in Mexico City, Jan. 10, 2023.
At his Wednesday press conference, López Obrador had bemoaned the politics behind border security and immigration in the United States.
“We have to be thinking about this regrettable phenomenon of necessary migration, used with political ends in the United States,” he said, responding to a question from The Hill.
“The governor of Texas, campaigning, [saying] he will militarize the border and that he will continue building [the] wall; and the governor of Florida, the same, because he wants to be the Republican Party candidate and he’s politicking.”
DeSantis has increasingly leaned on the immigration and border security debate, despite Florida’s distance from the U.S.-Mexico border.
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