Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Saturday he would not congratulate a winner of the U.S. presidential election until all legal challenges have been concluded.
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(Compiled from Joseph Choi, The Hill and Mark Moore, NYPost) — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Saturday he would not congratulate a winner of the U.S. presidential election until all legal challenges have been concluded.
“With regard to the U.S. election, we are going to wait until all the legal matters have been resolved,” López Obrador said, according to Reuters. “I can’t congratulate one candidate or the other. I want to wait until the electoral process is over.”
President-elect Joe Biden was projected to be the winner of the election by the media seconds after a new batch of votes was announced in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
The Trump campaign filed a series of lawsuits in key battleground states, citing voter fraud such as dead people voting, postal employees backdating ballots to election day, computer “glitches” that switched votes for Trump to Biden, etc..
President Obrador, who has a working relationship with Trump despite tensions over illegal immigration policy, praised the president at a news conference Saturday.
“President Trump has been very respectful of us, and we have reached very good agreements, and we thank him because he has not interfered and has respected us,” he said.
“We don’t want to be imprudent nor act hastily,” he added.
Mexico is the largest trade partner the U.S. has, Reuters noted, with more than $600 billion worth of commerce exchanged between the two countries each year. Mexico’s economic relationship with the U.S. is its most important.
China’s president Xi JinPing is also waiting until the legal issues are resolved.
“We noticed that Mr. Biden has declared election victory,” China’s foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Monday. “We understand that the U.S. presidential election result will be determined following U.S. law and procedures.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin will also hold off his congratulations, the Kremlin said on Monday.
“We think it appropriate to wait for the official vote count,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Peskov said there are differences between 2020 and 2016, when Putin congratulated Trump on his victory over Hillary Clinton.
“You can see that there are certain legal procedures that have been announced by the current president. That is why the situations are different and we therefore think it appropriate to wait for an official announcement,” he said.
Other world leaders have congratulated Biden on his projected win, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and the leaders of Germany, France, Israel and Australia.
Compiled from articles published at thehill .com on November 8, 2020 and the NY Post. Reprinted here for educational purposes only. May not be reproduced on other websites without permission from The Hill and the Post.
Questions
NOTE: Before answering the following questions, read the info under “Background” and watch the video under “Resources” below.
1. List the who, what, where and when of the news report.
2. How did President López Obrador explain his hold-off on a congratulatory call to the winner of the U.S. presidential election, announced by the media as Joe Biden? Be specific.
3. What is the trade relationship like between the U.S. and Mexico?
4. President López Obrador is Mexico’s first leftist president in seven decades (per the BBC). What do you think of the fact that he and President Trump are able to have a good working relationship?
5. Do you think President López Obrador is in doubt about the winner of the U.S. presidential election? Explain your answer.
6. What do you think of China and Russia’s explanation for not congratulating Joe Biden yet? (Who is being petty: the U.S.’s European allies that Trump made pay their fair share for NATO or Russia, China and Mexico who Trump forced to re-work trade deals, etc.?) Explain your answer.
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