AI
Monday, January 09, 2023 5:27:11 PM
How Trump's allies stoked Brazil Congress attack
"Police accused of suppressing Lula vote in Brazil election"
Published 5 hours ago
Protesters smash windows as they invade the presidential palace in scenes reminiscent of the US Capitol riot in January 2021
Getty Images
Mike Wendling
US disinformation reporter
The scenes in Brasilia looked eerily similar to events at the US Capitol on 6 January two years ago - and there are deeper connections as well.
"The whole thing smells," said a guest on Steve Bannon's podcast, one day after the first round of voting in the Brazilian election in October last year.
The race was heading towards a run-off and the final result was not even close to being known. Yet Mr Bannon, as he had been doing for weeks, spread baseless rumours about election fraud.
Across several episodes of his podcast and in social media posts, he and his guests stoked up allegations of a "stolen election" and shadowy forces. He promoted the hashtag #BrazilianSpring, and continued to encourage opposition even after Mr Bolsonaro himself appeared to accept the results.
* Follow live updates from Brazil
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-latin-america-64206148
* What do the Bolsonaro protesters want?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-64212627
Mr Bannon, the former White House chief strategist, was just one of several key allies of Donald Trump who followed the same strategy used to cast doubt on the results of the 2020 US presidential election.
And like what happened in Washington on 6 January 2021, those false reports and unproven rumours helped fuel a mob that smashed windows and stormed government buildings in an attempt to further their cause.
'Do whatever is necessary!'
The day before the Capitol riot, Mr Bannon told his podcast listeners: "All hell is going to break loose tomorrow." He has been sentenced to four months in prison for refusing to comply with an order to testify in front of a Congressional committee that investigated the attack but is free pending an appeal.
Along with other prominent Trump advisers who spread fraud rumours, Mr Bannon was unrepentant on Sunday, even as footage emerged of widespread destruction in Brazil.
"Lula stole the Election… Brazilians know this," he wrote repeatedly on the social media site Gettr. He called the people who stormed the buildings "Freedom Fighters".
Ali Alexander, a fringe activist who emerged after the 2020 election as one of the leaders of the pro-Trump "Stop the Steal" movement, encouraged the crowds, writing "Do whatever is necessary!" and claiming to have contacts inside the country.
-----
[START INSERT: Sedition: Why not Trump, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.),
Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas)
Why Republicans may let Greene and Gosar's latest brushfire burn itself out
[...]
The Trump supporters who went from planning the Jan. 6 rally to aiding the riot probe
December 23, 20214:56 PM ET
Heard on All Things Considered
[...]
SHAPIRO: Jen Lawrence and Dustin Stockton helped organize a number of rallies to overturn the election, including the big one in Washington last January 6. That rally was immediately followed by a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol. Well, they are now cooperating with the House Select Committee investigating the events of that day, and they have also told their story to reporter Hunter Walker, who's written about them for Rolling Stone. He says they used to work closely with Trump adviser Steve Bannon.
P - WALKER: They were involved with him when he was at Breitbart,...
[...]
SHAPIRO: Now what did they tell you about their role in organizing the January 6 rally that immediately preceded the assault on the Capitol?
P - WALKER: So, you know, I think one thing people should understand is there wasn't one thing on January 6. There was this major rally on the Ellipse that was put together by this group, Women for America First, largely. There was also this, quote, unquote, "wild protest," which was scheduled to take place right on the side of the Capitol. And that was organized mostly by this far-right activist Ali Alexander. In the lead-up to January 6 in the months between the election and the electoral certification in Congress that day, both the organizers of the wild protest and the main Ellipse rally had these nationwide tours. And Dustin and Jen were prominent speakers at this March for Trump bus tour, where they promoted the baseless allegations of fraud. And they also were involved that day. They were in the VIP section on the Ellipse, you know, and they helped to get guests and promote all of those different events challenging the election.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=169107510
.. one more .. add: longer than anticipated when here first time
The Conspirators: The Proud Boys and Oath Keepers on Jan. 6
"Trump’s Next Coup Has Already Begun"
[...]
The Oath Keepers’ case is also of special interest in that a number of these defendants were playing semi-official roles at the rallies that weekend as well as at earlier Stop the Steal rallies. At least one Oath Keeper—Jessica Watkins—had a VIP pass to provide security at the main rally at the Ellipse, while six others were providing security for longtime dirty trickster, convicted felon and Trump pardonee Roger Stone on Jan. 5 and 6.
P - Stone was not just a major promoter of the Stop the Steal movement and a key speaker at rallies on Jan. 5. He was also the original mastermind of the whole template for insurrection that played out on Jan. 6. Four years earlier—in July 2016 .. https://www.breitbart.com/social-justice/2016/07/29/roger-stone-milo-show-trump-can-fight-voter-fraud/ —when Stone mistakenly assumed that Trump would lose his first Presidential contest against Hillary Clinton, he had laid out the entire insurrection formula in an interview on Breitbart’s The Milo Yiannopoulos Show .. https://www.breitbart.com/social-justice/2016/07/29/roger-stone-milo-show-trump-can-fight-voter-fraud/ . He had observed then that a voting machine was “essentially a computer” and had reasoned, “Who is to say they cannot be rigged?” He continued:
-
I think we have widespread voter fraud...
[...]
Moreover, as we’ll see, there is evidence that the Proud Boys planned to storm the Capitol from before the day ever began.
[...]
By May 2020, President Trump had begun laying the foundation for blaming his upcoming election loss on voter fraud. Apparently following Roger Stone’s template from 2016, he was alleging “widespread voting fraud” and “talking about it constantly.”
[...]
Rhodes and his Oath Keepers have always evinced a strong paranoid streak. A former Army paratrooper and 2004 Yale Law School graduate, Rhodes founded the group in 2009 after President Obama took office.
[...]
Rhodes built his organization on the premise that the U.S. government had been subverted by globalists and socialists.
[...]
More Stop the Steal rallies were held in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 12, two days before Presidential electors were to meet in state capitals to formalize the results of the 2020 election in their states. Speakers included Roger Stone, Proud Boy chairman Tarrio, Proud Boy elder Nordean, Oath Keeper founder Rhodes and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
[...]
...Rhodes’s Oath Keepers provided security .. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/21/us/politics/phil-waldron-jan-6.html .. for Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump’s pardoned, former national security advisor. By then, Flynn was also calling for imposition of an at least “limited” form of martial law, with the military seizing voting devices and running a do-over election.
[...]
On Dec. 19, Trump issued perhaps the most momentous dog whistle of his career: “Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election,” he tweeted .. https://www.thetrumparchive.com/?searchbox=%22will+be+wild%22 . “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
[...]
Later that same day, Alex Jones told his viewers .. https://www.banned.video/watch?id=5fde8270a8d3d905041c357a .. that Trump’s “will-be-wild” tweet was “one of the most historic events in American history,” likening it to Paul Revere’s ride in 1776. In language later quoted by the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the United States Capitol in its November 2021 cover letter to Jones subpoenaing his testimony and pertinent documents, he continued:
[...]
Eventually, it was decided that firearms would be stored with a “quick reaction force” (QRF) just outside D.C. at the Comfort Inn in Ballston.
[...]
As Jan. 6 approached, Alex Jones hinted that historic bombshells were afoot. On Dec. 29 he told his viewers: “Now I know some incredible information that I am not at liberty to tell you. But I am at liberty to give you a hint, which I don't think is too hard. You notice Trump said, ‘January 6th will be wild in D.C.?’ Well, it will be wild.”
P - Wild rumors were circulating in right-wing circles. Many Oath Keepers were anticipating Trump’s imminent invocation of the Insurrection Act:
[...]
On the afternoon and evening of Jan. 5, six Oath Keepers protected Roger Stone as he spoke at two rallies, according to the New York Times .. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/02/14/us/roger-stone-capitol-riot.html?action= . They chauffeured him to and from events in a pair of golf carts.
P - “This is nothing less than an epic struggle for the future of this country between Dark and Light, between the godly and the godless, between Good and Evil,” Stone said [SHEEESH!]
[...]
The permit for the Capitol rally had been obtained by an organization called One Nation Under God. Stop the Steal organizer Ali Alexander—who is not mentioned in the permit—has subsequently admitted .. https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/21172551/ali-alexander-statement-to-kte-from-nyt.pdf .. that he organized it.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=167439846
MUCH more there than i had planned for, but it affords a brief look review of some salient points around that Jan. 6, 2021 again. And a reminder of some of the figures most involved. One important point i had totally forgotten was that Roger Stone had the insurrection planned for four years.]
END INSERT
-----
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
View original tweet on Twitter
Bolsonaro supporters railed online about an existential crisis and a supposed "communist takeover" - exactly the same type of rhetoric that drove the rioters in Washington two years ago.
In another parallel with the Capitol riot, some supporters of the former president attempted to shift the blame by pinning the storming of government offices on outside agitators or supporters of President Lula.
Rumours about anti-fascist antifa activists or left-wing agitators sparking the Capitol riot gained traction online and on right-wing news outlets after 6 January, but subsequent criminal trials have consistently shown that the main leaders and instigators of the attack were staunch supporters of former President Trump.
Supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro clash with security forces as they raid the National Congress in Brasilia Getty Images
Casting doubt on voting systems
The links between Mr Bolsonaro and the Trump movement were highlighted by a meeting in November between the former president and Mr Bolsonaro's son at Mr Trump's Florida resort.
[The bastard is even orchestrating attempted coups from his Florida home. And
now Bolsonaro is in Florida. Hope Biden eventually will be able to revoke his visa. ]
During that trip, Eduardo Bolsonaro also spoke to Mr Bannon and Trump adviser Jason Miller, according to reports in the Washington Post .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/23/brazil-bolsonaro-bannon/ .. and other news outlets.
As in the US in 2020, partisan election-deniers focused their attention on the mechanisms of voting. In Brazil, they cast suspicion on electronic vote tabulation machines.
Mr Bannon posted messages urging Brazilian authorities to "release the machines", echoing calls to investigate electronic voting in Colorado, Arizona, Georgia and other states. The American authorities responsible for election security said in 2020 that there was no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was compromised in any way.
A banner displayed by the Brazilian rioters on Sunday declared "We want the source code" in both English and Portuguese - a reference to rumours that electronic voting machines were somehow programmed or hacked in order to foil Mr Bolsonaro.
Tweet
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
View original tweet on Twitter
A number of prominent Brazilian Twitter accounts which spread election denial rumours were reinstated after the election and acquisition of the company by Elon Musk, according to a BBC analysis. The accounts had previously been banned.
Mr Musk himself has suggested some of Twitter's own employees in Brazil were "strongly politically biased" without giving details or evidence.
Mr Bolsonaro's supporters smashed windows and trashed government offices Getty Images
Some of Mr Trump's opponents in the US were quick to put the blame on the former president and his advisers for encouraging the unrest in Brazil.
Jamie Raskin, a Democratic Party member of the US House of Representatives and a member of the committee that investigated the Capitol riot, called the Brazilian protesters "fascists modeling themselves after Trump's Jan. 6 rioters" in a tweet.
The BBC attempted to contact Mr Bannon and Mr Alexander for comment.
With reporting from the BBC's disinformation team
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64206484
"Police accused of suppressing Lula vote in Brazil election"
Published 5 hours ago
Protesters smash windows as they invade the presidential palace in scenes reminiscent of the US Capitol riot in January 2021
Getty Images
Mike Wendling
US disinformation reporter
The scenes in Brasilia looked eerily similar to events at the US Capitol on 6 January two years ago - and there are deeper connections as well.
"The whole thing smells," said a guest on Steve Bannon's podcast, one day after the first round of voting in the Brazilian election in October last year.
The race was heading towards a run-off and the final result was not even close to being known. Yet Mr Bannon, as he had been doing for weeks, spread baseless rumours about election fraud.
Across several episodes of his podcast and in social media posts, he and his guests stoked up allegations of a "stolen election" and shadowy forces. He promoted the hashtag #BrazilianSpring, and continued to encourage opposition even after Mr Bolsonaro himself appeared to accept the results.
* Follow live updates from Brazil
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-latin-america-64206148
* What do the Bolsonaro protesters want?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-64212627
Mr Bannon, the former White House chief strategist, was just one of several key allies of Donald Trump who followed the same strategy used to cast doubt on the results of the 2020 US presidential election.
And like what happened in Washington on 6 January 2021, those false reports and unproven rumours helped fuel a mob that smashed windows and stormed government buildings in an attempt to further their cause.
'Do whatever is necessary!'
The day before the Capitol riot, Mr Bannon told his podcast listeners: "All hell is going to break loose tomorrow." He has been sentenced to four months in prison for refusing to comply with an order to testify in front of a Congressional committee that investigated the attack but is free pending an appeal.
Along with other prominent Trump advisers who spread fraud rumours, Mr Bannon was unrepentant on Sunday, even as footage emerged of widespread destruction in Brazil.
"Lula stole the Election… Brazilians know this," he wrote repeatedly on the social media site Gettr. He called the people who stormed the buildings "Freedom Fighters".
Ali Alexander, a fringe activist who emerged after the 2020 election as one of the leaders of the pro-Trump "Stop the Steal" movement, encouraged the crowds, writing "Do whatever is necessary!" and claiming to have contacts inside the country.
-----
[START INSERT: Sedition: Why not Trump, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.),
Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas)
Why Republicans may let Greene and Gosar's latest brushfire burn itself out
[...]
The Trump supporters who went from planning the Jan. 6 rally to aiding the riot probe
December 23, 20214:56 PM ET
Heard on All Things Considered
[...]
SHAPIRO: Jen Lawrence and Dustin Stockton helped organize a number of rallies to overturn the election, including the big one in Washington last January 6. That rally was immediately followed by a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol. Well, they are now cooperating with the House Select Committee investigating the events of that day, and they have also told their story to reporter Hunter Walker, who's written about them for Rolling Stone. He says they used to work closely with Trump adviser Steve Bannon.
P - WALKER: They were involved with him when he was at Breitbart,...
[...]
SHAPIRO: Now what did they tell you about their role in organizing the January 6 rally that immediately preceded the assault on the Capitol?
P - WALKER: So, you know, I think one thing people should understand is there wasn't one thing on January 6. There was this major rally on the Ellipse that was put together by this group, Women for America First, largely. There was also this, quote, unquote, "wild protest," which was scheduled to take place right on the side of the Capitol. And that was organized mostly by this far-right activist Ali Alexander. In the lead-up to January 6 in the months between the election and the electoral certification in Congress that day, both the organizers of the wild protest and the main Ellipse rally had these nationwide tours. And Dustin and Jen were prominent speakers at this March for Trump bus tour, where they promoted the baseless allegations of fraud. And they also were involved that day. They were in the VIP section on the Ellipse, you know, and they helped to get guests and promote all of those different events challenging the election.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=169107510
.. one more .. add: longer than anticipated when here first time
The Conspirators: The Proud Boys and Oath Keepers on Jan. 6
"Trump’s Next Coup Has Already Begun"
[...]
The Oath Keepers’ case is also of special interest in that a number of these defendants were playing semi-official roles at the rallies that weekend as well as at earlier Stop the Steal rallies. At least one Oath Keeper—Jessica Watkins—had a VIP pass to provide security at the main rally at the Ellipse, while six others were providing security for longtime dirty trickster, convicted felon and Trump pardonee Roger Stone on Jan. 5 and 6.
P - Stone was not just a major promoter of the Stop the Steal movement and a key speaker at rallies on Jan. 5. He was also the original mastermind of the whole template for insurrection that played out on Jan. 6. Four years earlier—in July 2016 .. https://www.breitbart.com/social-justice/2016/07/29/roger-stone-milo-show-trump-can-fight-voter-fraud/ —when Stone mistakenly assumed that Trump would lose his first Presidential contest against Hillary Clinton, he had laid out the entire insurrection formula in an interview on Breitbart’s The Milo Yiannopoulos Show .. https://www.breitbart.com/social-justice/2016/07/29/roger-stone-milo-show-trump-can-fight-voter-fraud/ . He had observed then that a voting machine was “essentially a computer” and had reasoned, “Who is to say they cannot be rigged?” He continued:
-
I think we have widespread voter fraud...
[...]
Moreover, as we’ll see, there is evidence that the Proud Boys planned to storm the Capitol from before the day ever began.
[...]
By May 2020, President Trump had begun laying the foundation for blaming his upcoming election loss on voter fraud. Apparently following Roger Stone’s template from 2016, he was alleging “widespread voting fraud” and “talking about it constantly.”
[...]
Rhodes and his Oath Keepers have always evinced a strong paranoid streak. A former Army paratrooper and 2004 Yale Law School graduate, Rhodes founded the group in 2009 after President Obama took office.
[...]
Rhodes built his organization on the premise that the U.S. government had been subverted by globalists and socialists.
[...]
More Stop the Steal rallies were held in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 12, two days before Presidential electors were to meet in state capitals to formalize the results of the 2020 election in their states. Speakers included Roger Stone, Proud Boy chairman Tarrio, Proud Boy elder Nordean, Oath Keeper founder Rhodes and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
[...]
...Rhodes’s Oath Keepers provided security .. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/21/us/politics/phil-waldron-jan-6.html .. for Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump’s pardoned, former national security advisor. By then, Flynn was also calling for imposition of an at least “limited” form of martial law, with the military seizing voting devices and running a do-over election.
[...]
On Dec. 19, Trump issued perhaps the most momentous dog whistle of his career: “Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election,” he tweeted .. https://www.thetrumparchive.com/?searchbox=%22will+be+wild%22 . “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
[...]
Later that same day, Alex Jones told his viewers .. https://www.banned.video/watch?id=5fde8270a8d3d905041c357a .. that Trump’s “will-be-wild” tweet was “one of the most historic events in American history,” likening it to Paul Revere’s ride in 1776. In language later quoted by the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the United States Capitol in its November 2021 cover letter to Jones subpoenaing his testimony and pertinent documents, he continued:
[...]
Eventually, it was decided that firearms would be stored with a “quick reaction force” (QRF) just outside D.C. at the Comfort Inn in Ballston.
[...]
As Jan. 6 approached, Alex Jones hinted that historic bombshells were afoot. On Dec. 29 he told his viewers: “Now I know some incredible information that I am not at liberty to tell you. But I am at liberty to give you a hint, which I don't think is too hard. You notice Trump said, ‘January 6th will be wild in D.C.?’ Well, it will be wild.”
P - Wild rumors were circulating in right-wing circles. Many Oath Keepers were anticipating Trump’s imminent invocation of the Insurrection Act:
[...]
On the afternoon and evening of Jan. 5, six Oath Keepers protected Roger Stone as he spoke at two rallies, according to the New York Times .. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/02/14/us/roger-stone-capitol-riot.html?action= . They chauffeured him to and from events in a pair of golf carts.
P - “This is nothing less than an epic struggle for the future of this country between Dark and Light, between the godly and the godless, between Good and Evil,” Stone said [SHEEESH!]
[...]
The permit for the Capitol rally had been obtained by an organization called One Nation Under God. Stop the Steal organizer Ali Alexander—who is not mentioned in the permit—has subsequently admitted .. https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/21172551/ali-alexander-statement-to-kte-from-nyt.pdf .. that he organized it.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=167439846
MUCH more there than i had planned for, but it affords a brief look review of some salient points around that Jan. 6, 2021 again. And a reminder of some of the figures most involved. One important point i had totally forgotten was that Roger Stone had the insurrection planned for four years.]
END INSERT
-----
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
View original tweet on Twitter
Bolsonaro supporters railed online about an existential crisis and a supposed "communist takeover" - exactly the same type of rhetoric that drove the rioters in Washington two years ago.
In another parallel with the Capitol riot, some supporters of the former president attempted to shift the blame by pinning the storming of government offices on outside agitators or supporters of President Lula.
Rumours about anti-fascist antifa activists or left-wing agitators sparking the Capitol riot gained traction online and on right-wing news outlets after 6 January, but subsequent criminal trials have consistently shown that the main leaders and instigators of the attack were staunch supporters of former President Trump.
Supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro clash with security forces as they raid the National Congress in Brasilia Getty Images
Casting doubt on voting systems
The links between Mr Bolsonaro and the Trump movement were highlighted by a meeting in November between the former president and Mr Bolsonaro's son at Mr Trump's Florida resort.
[The bastard is even orchestrating attempted coups from his Florida home. And
now Bolsonaro is in Florida. Hope Biden eventually will be able to revoke his visa. ]
During that trip, Eduardo Bolsonaro also spoke to Mr Bannon and Trump adviser Jason Miller, according to reports in the Washington Post .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/23/brazil-bolsonaro-bannon/ .. and other news outlets.
As in the US in 2020, partisan election-deniers focused their attention on the mechanisms of voting. In Brazil, they cast suspicion on electronic vote tabulation machines.
Mr Bannon posted messages urging Brazilian authorities to "release the machines", echoing calls to investigate electronic voting in Colorado, Arizona, Georgia and other states. The American authorities responsible for election security said in 2020 that there was no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was compromised in any way.
A banner displayed by the Brazilian rioters on Sunday declared "We want the source code" in both English and Portuguese - a reference to rumours that electronic voting machines were somehow programmed or hacked in order to foil Mr Bolsonaro.
Tweet
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
View original tweet on Twitter
A number of prominent Brazilian Twitter accounts which spread election denial rumours were reinstated after the election and acquisition of the company by Elon Musk, according to a BBC analysis. The accounts had previously been banned.
Mr Musk himself has suggested some of Twitter's own employees in Brazil were "strongly politically biased" without giving details or evidence.
Mr Bolsonaro's supporters smashed windows and trashed government offices Getty Images
Some of Mr Trump's opponents in the US were quick to put the blame on the former president and his advisers for encouraging the unrest in Brazil.
Jamie Raskin, a Democratic Party member of the US House of Representatives and a member of the committee that investigated the Capitol riot, called the Brazilian protesters "fascists modeling themselves after Trump's Jan. 6 rioters" in a tweet.
The BBC attempted to contact Mr Bannon and Mr Alexander for comment.
With reporting from the BBC's disinformation team
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64206484
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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