CNN anchor Jim Sciutto worked overtime on Monday to connect Donald Trump and Jan. 6 to chaos in Brazil.
What is the background?
On Sunday, supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, the now-former president of Brazil who narrowly lost reelection last year, stormed the National Congress of Brazil, the Supreme Court of Brazil, and the Brazilian presidential palace. Bolsonaro’s supporters believe election fraud caused Bolsonaro to lose his reelection.
After hours of unrest, law enforcement finally gained control of the situation. The government said that at least 1,200 people were detained, according to the Associated Press.
What did Sciutto say?
Speaking with former Rep. Joe Walsh (R) on CNN about the unrest, Sciutto asked Walsh if the U.S. is becoming an exporter of “election denialism” where it used to export democracy.
“We used to talk about and many folks still imagine this, and perhaps it’s true to some extent, the U.S. exports democracy,” Sciutto began.
“But as you watch [what happened in Brazil] and how it was seeded by the losing candidate in that election, who had a lot of rapport, one might say, with Donald Trump, is election denialism a new U.S. export?” he asked
Walsh appeared to agree with Sciutto’s assessment and suggested other countries learned from Jan. 6.
“The rest of the world watches us. Clearly the rest of the world watched us on Jan. 6,” Walsh responded. “I never would have thought that two years removed from a violent attempt to overthrow an American election that … Donald Trump would still be the leader of the Republican Party and he would be running for president again.
“The world watched what we did on Jan. 6, and Trump and the Republican Party really didn’t pay a price,” he claimed. “My fear is that this is something that fledgling democracies around the world are learning from us.”
Anything else?
Democrats are calling on the U.S. government to “extradite” Bolsonaro back to Brazil from the U.S.
But the White House said on Monday the government cannot do that because it has not received a formal request from Brazil for Bolsonaro’s return.
Bolsonaro was reportedly hospitalized in Florida on Monday. He has been in the U.S. for more than a week. He left his home country two days before the inauguration of his successor, Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva.