Mike Thompson: “I imagine his political opponents would see this as an opportunity to question his effectiveness and his relationship to…”

“I imagine his political opponents would see this as an opportunity to question his effectiveness and his relationship to this country. It is coming at a time when he made certain commitments to work with us on problems that are very important to us. He has made commitments with regard to the illegal immigration problem knowing, as I believe most of us do, that before we can ultimately deal with that problem, we are going to have to have some progress in terms of the Mexican economy. We can't beggar our neighbor and get by with it in this world today. We especially can't with that common border we have of 1,200 miles. We cannot solve that problem without a better Mexican economy. NAFTA is at the heart of that. He has to be looking at all of that and seeing us move away from that. I say his political opponents have to be looking at that and seeing an excellent opportunity to do harm to NAFTA and the principles of NAFTA and to do harm to a new, fresh face on the scene who, as you say, is the best friend we have had down there in a long time, and who is trying to do the right thing. For all those reasons, it is extremely unfortunate we are moving in that direction.”