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GOP
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Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, sometimes called "Trump of the tropics," lost his reelection bid and made false claims that the election was rigged and that he really won. His supporters stormed the presidential palace, the Congress, and the Supreme Court on Jan. 8, 2023.
After losing, he fled the country and went to Florida. He also skipped the inauguration of the new president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and refused to hand over the ceremonial presidential sash, a symbolic gesture to demonstrate the peaceful transfer of power. The U.S. doesn't have a presidential sash to hand over, but Donald Trump could have symbolically handed over 50 cartons of classified documents in lieu thereof. He didn't.
Bolsonaro's term ended 6 months ago, on Dec. 31, 2022. On Friday, the Superior Electoral Court voted to convict Bolsonaro of abuse of power. In a 382-page opinion, the Court ruled that Bolsonaro "was fully, personally responsible" for attacking the electoral system and that he also "violated his duties as a president." It also said: "It is not possible to turn a blind eye to the anti-democratic effects of violent speeches and lies that jeopardize the credibility of the electoral system." Bolsonaro was warned 31 times by the courts. On that point, Donald Trump beat him. After the Nov. 2020 election, Donald Trump filed 62 lawsuits claiming he won and lost 61 of them. The one "win" was in a case in which a Pennsylvania judge ruled that absentee voters had 3 days to "cure" ballots that were in error.
If the ruling against Bolsonaro survives an appeal to the Supreme Court, as expected, Bolsonaro will be banned from running for public office for 8 years. This is how things work in a Third-World country: Corrupt politicians are sentenced within 6 months instead of the normal 6 years in advanced countries.
Bolsonaro ran in 2018 on promises to drain the swamp. He didn't. But he did gut the Amazon rainforest, widened the country's culture-war divisions, and presided over one of the deadliest COVID-19 outbreaks. So yes, he is a lot like Trump. (V)