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‘Why Can’t It Happen Elsewhere?’: NYT Reporter Blames Trump For Brazil Riot

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A New York Times reporter blamed former President Donald Trump during a Monday MSNBC appearance for the Sunday riot in Brazil after supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro stormed various federal buildings.

Supporters of Bolsonaro stormed multiple government buildings in Brasilia, including the country’s highest court and the congressional building after weeks of protests over Bolsonaro’s narrow defeat in an Oct. 30 runoff against former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, according to Reuters. Bolsonaro refused to concede and questioned the results of the election, alleging that voting machines malfunctioned.

“Bolsonaro has been called repeatedly the Trump of Latin America, and I think that is, you know, one of the worries that a lot of people in the United States have had about what happened on January 6th, what happened in terms of this effort to overturn the American election, because it then encourages actions around the world, in countries with democratic traditions that aren’t even as strong as ours,” New York Times reporter Peter Baker told host Katy Tur. “When they look and see what happens here, it looks like something that could be a plausible route forward in your own country, and I think that’s … the concern people had for really the four years that Trump was in office, that the democratic norms that he was so willing to bust, to sideline, to get around, would then encourage … like-minded people around the world to do the same.”

Tur noted that Bolsonaro “was often compared to Trump” and attempted to “use some of the same playbook about COVID, some of the same playbook about just denying any responsibility and being extreme.”

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Tur also highlighted the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol building and congressional Republicans who voted against certifying the 2020 election results, labeling them “election deniers.” The MSNBC host added that the same Republican “election deniers” opposed Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s bid for the speakership.

“That encourages that kind of thinking elsewhere as well,” Baker said. “If that can happen in the United States and there’s no consequence for the people at the top who make these kind of — you know, encourage this kind of, you know, deceptions about what happened during an election, who encourage the efforts to try to overturn the democratic election, then it seems more plausible or credible to do that elsewhere. If we can do it here, why can’t it happen elsewhere?”