Jair Bolsonaro ignored protests from other journalists after the comments and walked away. (Map)
Sao Paulo:
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Sunday threatened to slap a reporter several times in the mouth after he was asked about his wife’s links to a proven corruption scheme.
“I want to hit you in the mouth with punches,” the far-right president said when an O Globo reporter asked the question.
The reporter was part of a group that met Bolsonaro after his regular visit on Sunday to the Metropolitan Cathedral in Brasilia. The president ignored protests from other journalists after the remarks and left without making any further remarks.
The O Globo reporter asked about a report in Crusoe magazine linking First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro to Fabricio Queiroz, a retired police officer, friend of the president, and former adviser to her son Flavio Bolsonaro, who is now a senator .
Queiroz and Flavio Bolsonaro are being investigated for a scheme that allegedly swindled salaries of government employees when the younger Bolsonaro was a regional legislator in Rio de Janeiro, and before Jair Bolsonaro became president in January 2019.
According to the magazine, between 2011 and 2016 Queiroz put money in Michelle Bolsonaro’s bank accounts.
The first lady said nothing about the matter.
Shortly after the president’s outburst, O Globo issued a statement repeating his “aggression … towards a journalist from our newspaper who carried out his job in a professional manner.”
Such intimidation “shows that Jair Bolsonaro does not recognize the duty of an official … to be accountable to the public.”
(Except for the header, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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