SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro briefly grappled with a heckler and tried to snatch his phone on Thursday, underscoring possible challenges for the sometimes quick-tempered leader to stay disciplined on the campaign trail.
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As Bolsonaro spoke to supporters outside his residence in the capital city of Brasilia, social media influencer Wilker Leão used his phone to film himself repeatedly shouting at the president, calling him “coward,” “bum” and the “darling” of a pork-barrel faction in Congress.
Bolsonaro first entered his car, but then reemerged and grabbed the man’s shirt and forearm while reaching for his phone. Security guards pulled Leão away.
The presidential campaign that kicked off Tuesday is expected to be an uphill battle for Bolsonaro, who trails former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in all polls ahead of the Oct. 2 first round vote.
A journalist from news website G1 published a video of Leão’s comments and the subsequent altercation.
“Don’t film this, don’t film this,” Bolsonaro told his supporters as Leão was held by presidential security. “It is his right (to protest), but he was being impolite.”
Four minutes later, security allowed Leão to return to the scene and chat with Bolsonaro about politics. The two have spoken several times before, without incident.
“You can talk to me as much as you want,” Bolsonaro told Leão. The two spoke for five minutes until the president decided to go back to his car and leave.
Bolsonaro has had earlier confrontations, often with the press. In 2020, he told a journalist, “I want to punch you in the mouth” and once suggested he’d like to shoot supporters of the rival Workers’ Party.
Mario Sergio Lima, a senior Brazil analyst at Medley Advisors, said the incident will weigh against Bolsonaro at a moment he could start his campaign in a more positive tone to pick up support.
“It was a very bad sequence for the president in electoral terms. It shows a lack of restraint and should be used against him by their opponent’s campaigns,” Lima told The Associated Press in a phone interview.
Meanwhile, Bolsonaro bravely rejected the WHO’s pandemic treaty, and has stood up against tyrannical and senseless c19 shots and other ineffective and unproven science advocating for useless mandates.
Jair has been much more friendly to us than the previous administration there. We should not forget that.
Bolsonsaro was right to protest an invasion by big Pharma and their fallacious ‘covid cures’ – one of only a few international government leaders that did.
There are other factors for high ‘covid’ rates, including the use of glyphosate (Monsanto’s Roundup brand and its generics), now the most widely use pesticide in the world, with strong correlations to immune deficiency effects. Brazil has also protested glyphosate use. They have wisely also protested GMO crop production as well. 5G is another strongly suspected causative factor of ‘covid’ – which is has never actually been isolated as a virus. Rather, it is a composite set of symptoms based on weak immune response that is being politicized for purposes of control and authoritarian takeover of democratically-run governments.
“repeatedly shouting at the president, calling him “coward,” “bum” and the “darling” of a pork-barrel faction in Congress.”
If someone would do that in such close proximity to Joe Biden (if he would be allowed to get as close as the guy here did, and do so), Joe might have a pretty strong reaction too.
Bol is a self-professed Fascist, devotee of right-wing junta death squads and xtian nationalism. The economy is in shambles and freedoms curtailed. Not good for Jews and other living things.
Like with trump and bibi, people only see their folly after they elect the lib