Amy Klobuchar Y Tom Steyer two of the candidates of the Democratic Party, were unable to appoint the president of Mexico on Thursday night during an interview with Telemundo News, in which only Pete Buttigieg answered the name of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The three candidates were interviewed by journalist Guad Venegas after participating in the forum organized by Telemundo and LULAC (the League of United Latin American Citizens) in Nevada, a state where a caucus will be held on February 22 and where at least 28% of the population is Latino.
Klobuchar, a senator from Minnesota, who came third in New Hampshire, can’t answer Venegas’s question. He decided to finish the interview early, and when Venegas reminded him that there were still questions, she said, “No, no more questions.” Klobuchar left so abruptly that he took with him the microphone secured in his body, which he then returned.
An hour later he returned, after speaking in an interview with the subsidiary of Telemundo in Las Vegas, to whom he said the name of the president of Mexico.
Then, Klobuchar came back and approached Venegas and said, “So you see that I know more than you think.”
Steyer, a billionaire activist who came sixth in New Hampshire but is fourth in the polls in Nevada, Nor could he cite the name of the president of the neighboring country.
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The moment he could not answer the question his publicists covered his face, Steyer began to sweat and it was a rather “awkward” moment, as described by Venegas, even for the same reporter. Steyer also stopped and left after this.
All this despite the fact that the United States and Mexico share a 3,200-kilometer border and have a close commercial relationship that has been at the center of Donald Trump’s policy, with the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement and because of its intentions of building a wall in the border area.
When asked if he knows who the president of Mexico is, Buttigieg – former mayor of the small town of South Bend – replied: “Yes, President López Obrador.” He added that one of his first bilateral trips to reach the presidency would be to Mexico. The current president Donald Trump has not traveled to the neighboring country, instead, he has attacked him since his campaign.
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The former mayor felt well prepared, the reporter said, calm and courteous. He went into more detail about how he would change border policies: he would implement improvements to the visa system, use cutting-edge technology (not a wall) and train agents better.
Buttigieg even anticipated one of the questions Venegas was going to ask him about the salary disparity among Latina women who earn up to 55 cents for every dollar that English-speaking white men earn in the country. Before Venegas asked the question, Buttigieg mentioned the statistics.
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His knowledge of the region was evident. He added that he liked what El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, was doing, although he did not delve into what policies the president liked. Buttigieg said he was inspired because he is a 33-year-old young president and he himself has 38.
The former mayor went from being a stranger of national politics in the United States to one of the strikers in the Democratic race. He was second in the New Hampshire primary and led by a narrow margin the caucuses in Iowa.
