Candidate for Mexican ambassador to U.S. slams Trump for "lies"

Miguel Basanez Ebergenyi, nominee for Mexican ambassador to the United States, on Friday slammed U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for warping facts on Mexican immigrants to court voters.

"He (Trump) knows very well that what he says is totally false. He will most likely apologize to Mexicans and show that what he was doing was simply part of the campaign," said Basanez Ebergenyi, who was nominated as Mexico's ambassador to the U.S. earlier this month, during an appearance in the Mexican Congress.

However, Trump would continue to be inconsistent, as evidenced by his numerous swings between parties and changes of opinion, he told the commission on foreign affairs.

In recent months, Mexico has been a frequent target for Trump's fiery rhetoric. His most inflammatory comments came in June when he accused Mexican "rapists" of crossing the U.S. border, comments which cost him to lose a number of business deals, including with Spanish-language TV channel Univision.

Just this week, Trump expelled Univision's Jorge Ramos, a Mexican-American journalist, from a press conference. He also said he would "never eat Oreos again," citing the fact that Oreo's parent company Mondelez International would close an Oreo factory in Chicago and move it to Mexico.

During his appearance, Basanez Ebergenyi was interrogated by the commission, particularly its president, Deputy Gabriela Cuevas Barron, on various aspects of the Mexico-U.S. relationship.

Cuevas Barron stated that Trump's "hateful, xenophobic, misogynistic and intolerant" comments showed that Mexico needed a strong voice in Washington DC.

She told Basanez Ebergenyi that Mexico "needed an ambassador that would use his powers to be an ambassador for Mexican companies, its civil society and, especially, for its migrants who are the most vulnerable".

Basanez Ebergenyi addressed all the legislators' questions and added that, should his nomination be ratified next week, he would seek to address every topic raised with the U.S. government.

He added that he would seek to redefine the bilateral relationship to empower the Mexican community in the United States, to spread awareness about the changes that Mexico is ongoing, and to ensure both countries shared responsibility for a secure border.

The Mexican embassy in the U.S. will soon complete six months without an official ambassador in residence since Eduardo Medina-Mora left the position in March 2015 to become a Supreme Court Justice. Endit