Sciutto brought on vocal Donald Trump critic and former Republican Congressman Joe Walsh to react to the footage and both tied the event right back to the January 6 Capitol riot in the U.S. — Sciutto even claimed Bolsonaro had “rapport” with Trump. Trump, notably, endorsed Bolsonaro in his failed reelection campaign and dubbed him the “Tropical Trump.”
Sciutto said:
We used to talk about and many folks still imagine this and perhaps it’s true to some extent, that the U.S. exports democracy. But as you watch this and how it was ceded by the losing candidate is election denialism a new U.S. export in that election who had a lot of rapport one might say with Donald Trump. Is election denialism a new U.S. export?
Walsh was in total agreement, suggesting extremists in other countries may have been inspired by January 6.
“We’re the world’s oldest democracy. The rest of the world watches us. Clearly, the rest of the world watched us on January 6,” he said.
He later added, “My fear is that this is something that fledgling democracies around the world are learning from us.”