Former Mexican President Vicente Fox officially challenged Donald Trump to a debate on US soil, or at least to join him for a “free lunch” in Mexico, in hopes that Trump will listen to him and try to understand his point of view.
“I’m willing to come here, to come here, to the States, if it’s for a debate, a direct personal debate with him,” ex-President Fox told WABC radio’s Election Central with Rita Cosby.
Fox would like to sit down with the GOP presumptive nominee and discuss politics, economics, and “how the jobs are created.”
“Yes, I would debate him here in the States or invite him for a free lunch in Mexico,” Fox said, even suggesting that they could “use national broadcasting, public broadcasting” for their head-to-head clash.
However, it looks like the debate is to be a one-sided affair so far, as Trump may not even know about it. Fox acknowledged that he has not had any dialogue with either Trump or his office.
“Not directly, not indirectly, no. First time I see a guy like him,” Fox said, confirming that he is now “officially” inviting the GOP frontrunner for the debate.
Fox said he expects that the debate would lead Trump to listen to him and give him an opportunity to put his “arguments on the table,” but both would follow “facts and numbers and not just lying and cheating to people, saying blah, blah, blah.”
The Mexican businessman is quite serious about verbally challenging Trump.
“No, this is not a show and I don’t want his $10 million he says he’d raise for a debate,” Fox said in a reference to Trump’s proposed “nice sum for a charity” condition for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’s debate challenge.
“No charge on my side. But, the thing is we should listen to what we’re saying and that will be very exciting and very interesting for everybody to hear about,” Fox added.
Fox has been very outspoken in his opposition to Trump’s presidential campaign and even had to apologize for using offensive language when referring to the real-estate tycoon.
On May 5, Fox offered an apology for scolding Trump over the construction of a wall between Mexico and the US in February, when he compared the presumptive GOP nominee to Hitler.
“I’m not going to pay for that f***ing wall,” Fox said in an interview with CNN at the time.
Trump demanded an apology via Twitter.
Yet, on May 10, Fox was back to criticizing Trump, calling him “crazy,” a “false prophet,” and an “ugly American.”
“Wake up Americans, he’s a false prophet,” Fox told the Kickass Politics podcast. “Think about it, analyze what he’s proposing. Count the amount of lies he says in every speech. Every day he lies and lies with figures because his sole interest is to do personal business, to get greedy, to get more money, to put the Trump name everywhere in the world.”