FIRST ON FOX: Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, is introducing a resolution that would condemn the Mexican president for threatening to meddle in U.S. elections in response to Republican moves to crack down on fentanyl smuggling across the border — with the Texas lawmaker calling for a “united front” from Congress.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in March threatened to launch an “information campaign” after Republicans — including Crenshaw — had suggested that the U.S. may have to take military action against cartels in Mexico that are producing fentanyl and moving it across the border.
Fentanyl is primarily produced in Mexico using Chinese precursors and then shipped across the U.S. land border. The illicit opioid, which is 50-100 times more potent than morphine and can be fatal in small doses, is responsible for over 70,000 American deaths a year.
MEXICAN PRESIDENT PLEADS FOR CHINESE REGIME’S HELP ON FENTANYL CRISIS, SLAMS ‘RUDE THREATS’ FROM US
Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, is seen outside a meeting of the House Republican Conference in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, January 3, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
But with Republicans calling for more action against the cartels, including military interventions and Foreign Terrorist Organization declarations, Lopez Obrador pushed back and moved to punish Republicans at the ballot box instead.
“Starting today we are going to start an information campaign for Mexicans who live and work in the United States and for all Hispanics to inform them of what we are doing in Mexico and how this initiative by the Republicans, in addition to being irresponsible, is an offense against the people of Mexico, a lack of respect for our independence, our sovereignty,” he said.
MEXICAN PRESIDENT SAYS LACK OF ‘HUGS AND EMBRACES’ NOT DRUG CARTELS TO BLAME FOR FENTANYL CRISIS
“And if they do not change their attitude and think that they are going to use Mexico for their propaganda, electoral, and political purposes, we are going to call for them not to vote for that party, because it is interventionist, inhumane, hypocritical, and corrupt,” Lopez Obrador said, later adding that Mexico would be insisting that “not one vote” goes to Republicans from Mexicans and Hispanics.
Crenshaw’s resolution notes that foreign interference in another country’s election is “a violation of law and longstanding international customs, including the United Nation’s Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations “
It also highlights that it is not the force time the controversial Mexican premier has made such threats, as in July 2022 he targeted Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and said that Mexico is “going to ask our countrymen there that they don’t vote for that candidate or party.”
The resolution calls on Lopez Obrador to retract his statements, commit to not interfering in U.S. elections and to “take action to ensure that no ministry or instrumentality acting on behalf of the Mexican Government takes any action to interfere with any election within the United States.”
At home, it calls on the State Department to monitor any Mexican efforts to interfere in U.S. elections, and calls on President Biden to denounce the remarks and also use the tools of government to protect from any interference.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, called for an immediate vote on the resolution, and a united response from Congress to the remarks by supporting the resolution.
“Instead of fighting the Mexican drug cartels that are killing Mexicans and Americans, President AMLO is fighting people like me who actually want to stop these murderous thugs. AMLO and his cronies have attacked me personally, victim-blamed Americans killed by fentanyl, and vowed to interfere in American elections to stop legislation that would target his cartel donors,” Crenshaw said.
Mexican President Andres Lopez Obrador stands at the National Palace during a ceremony in Mexico City, Sept. 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, File)
“Attempts to intimidate American voters or intervene in our democratic process will not be tolerated. Republican leadership should bring this important resolution to the House floor immediately for a vote. Every Member of Congress should support this resolution to show a united front against AMLO’s reckless rhetoric and his failure to stop cartels in his country from mass murdering Americans with fentanyl,” he said.
The threat from Lopez Obrador is just one of a number of highly inflammatory remarks he has made on the subject of fentanyl. He has falsely claimed that fentanyl is not produced in Mexico, while attributing the crisis to a “lack of hugs” in the U.S. rather than cartels in his country.
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He also wrote to Chinese President Xi Jinping requesting his help on the crisis, while simultaneously taking aim at American lawmakers.
“Unjustly, they are blaming us for problems that in large measure have to do with their loss of values, their welfare crisis,” her wrote. “These positions are in themselves a lack of respect and a threat to our sovereignty, and moreover they are based on an absurd, manipulative, propagandistic and demagogic attitude.”
