House Democrats Press Rubio on Hosting Brazil's Bolsonaro
The Facts
- Twenty-five U.S. House Democrats sent on Thursday a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio seeking an "immediate accounting" of the department's alleged role in the arrival of Brazilian Senator Flávio Bolsonaro in the U.S. this week.
- Led by Reps. Sydney Kamlager-Dove of California and Dina Titus of Nevada, the letter asks when U.S. officials learned of the Brazilian court order imposing a travel ban on Bolsonaro and whether any U.S. official assisted with logistical arrangements, among multiple other questions. Responses are due in two weeks.
- This comes after reports that White House communications official Jason Miller worked with Bolsonaro's U.S.-based younger brother Eduardo to secure a charter jet to take Brazil's main opposition presidential candidate, his wife and children, from Argentina to Miami two days after the runoff vote.
Sources Split
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The Spin
Democratic narrative
A man under investigation for money laundering slipped out of Brazil before police could seize his passport, and the Trump administration apparently rolled out the red carpet as multiple reports indicate that White House aide Jason Miller helped arrange the flight. To make matters worse, Brazil is probing whether Vance's Rockbridge Network propped up Bolsonaro's campaign. Rubio owes answers to the American people.
Republican narrative
Democrats preach due process at home, then cheer an infamous foreign judge's travel ban against a politician that has been convicted of nothing and demand his deportation. This selective indignation over one Brazilian conservative, after a decade of waving through unvetted arrivals, rings hollow. Giving refuge to a target of a politicized court costs nothing and says plenty about who still takes freedom seriously.
Narrative C
Setting U.S. politics aside, Brazil's own rule-of-law problem deserves scrutiny. Bolsonaro may be guilty or innocent, but fleeing settles nothing. Justice Moraes has long acted as investigator, prosecutor and judge, and the probe into Vance's Rockbridge Network follows a complaint from the ruling party. While Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was saved by due process once, the same doesn't apply when the surname is Bolsonaro.
Narrative D
The Bolsonaros face legal trouble because they reject democracy, plain and simple. Four years ago, the elder Bolsonaro was convicted of plotting a coup; now his eldest son has fled the country and claimed an electoral fraud that collapses against the evidence. If even the family's so-called moderate one is a putschist, the democratic right in Brazil should move on.
