Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador issued quite a few teasing remarks at the expense of President Joe Biden as part of a meeting within the Oval Office this past Tuesday, highlighting that quite a few American citizens had been making the trip across the border as a way to get access to gas at much cheaper prices.
As reported by quite a few different sources, Biden found himself subjected to a quite long speech from López Obrador when they met recently at the White House. He went over a large variety of issues, such as calling for more formal policies about immigration and even ribbing Biden about the extremely high cost of fuel throughout the United States.
“Extraordinary — AMLO has been speaking for 25 minutes in the Oval, offering Biden a lengthy soliloquy about the New Deal, gas prices, and opportunities for greater economic collaboration,” posted Eli Stokols, the White House reporter for the Los Angeles Times, via social media. “He is still going…”
Most awkward part was when AMLO told Biden Mexico is letting Americans cross the border to buy gas because it’s $1 cheaper per gallon.
Biden, when he finally finished after 31 minutes, reminded him that the US economic growth is leading the world.
And scene.
— Eli Stokols (@EliStokols) July 12, 2022
“Most awkward part was when AMLO told Biden Mexico is letting Americans cross the border to buy gas because it’s $1 cheaper per gallon,” he went on .”Biden, when he finally finished after 31 minutes, reminded him that the U.S. economic growth is leading the world. And scene.
The administration of López Obrador made moves in order to subsidize gasoline quite a few weeks ago in an attempt to help stabilize the price as they deal with rampant inflation, and the resulting prices seen at the pump have been noticeably lower than those throughout the United States.
“While we’re waiting for prices or gasoline to go down in the United States, we have decided that it was necessary for us to allow Americans who live close to the border … to go and get their gasoline on the Mexican side at lower prices,” he explained to Biden.
The comments from López Obrador ended off with a call for better policies along the U.S.-Mexico Border, claiming that Biden should go ahead and move forward regardless of the opposition from various conservatives.
“It is indispensable for us to regularize and give certainty to migrants that for years have lived and worked in a very honest manner,” he explained, adding, “I know that your adversaries the conservatives are going to be screaming all over the place. Even to the heaven they’re going to be yelling.”
Over the past few weeks, the formal relations between the two countries have been a bit strained. Just last month, López Obrador chose to boycott the Summit of the Americas held in Los Angeles due to the Biden administration not choosing to invite Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua because of the authoritarian nature of their governments.
“There cannot be a summit if all countries are not invited,” expressed the Mexican president at that time.