Last October, Bolsonaro was defeated at the polls by Lula da Silva, returning to power after a 12-year absence. Much like defeated, former President Donald Trump, Bolsonaro and his supporters questioned the legitimacy of the results.
The one key difference is that the January 6th attacks were launched in an effort to prevent the peaceful transition of power by blocking the certification of the 2020 election. Despite their efforts, Joe Biden would be inaugurated as this country's 46th President exactly two weeks later.
Lula, on the other hand, was inaugurated a week ago. Nevertheless, this was a coup attempt and it has been condemned by the Biden Administration and numerous other governments.
My question is whether the House of Representatives will be able to pass a resolution condemning the attack. After all, a great many members in the Republican majority are election deniers and Bolsonaro is viewed as an ally of Trump.
A further wrinkle in all of this is that Bolsonaro has been in Florida since losing the election. One cannot help but wonder if he will soon receive an audience with Trump to heap praise upon him and his supporters for their unlawful actions.
There might be some Republicans who will condemn today's action but I suspect that the Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert will not do so notwithstanding their recent disagreements over Kevin McCarthy. I also cannot see McCarthy condemning Bolsonaro supporters especially if Trump goes out on a limb for him.
While I am not a big fan of Lula and he could use this attack as a pretext for committing abuses of his own, he was nevertheless legitimately elected as President of Brazil and thus the actions of Bolsonaro and his supporters are no more acceptable than the actions of Trump and the MAGA crowd here in the United States.
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