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Steve Bannon, the former White House strategist to Donald Trump, has called on Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro not to concede after he lost the country's presidential election to left-wing candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
A far-right leader who has attracted support from a number of Trump allies, Bolsonaro became the first incumbent to lose a re-election campaign in Brazil after being narrowly beaten by Lula, who gained 50.9 percent of the vote compared with Bolsonaro's 49.1 percent.
After the results were declared, Bannon hosted a live stream on Gettr, alongside conservative activist and board member for Project Veritas, Matthew Tyrmand, with both men pushing unsubstantiated claims that the election was rigged against Bolsonaro.
During the discussion, Tyrmand suggested that the "world of interconnected globalists, starting in the Brazilian media" will attack those on the right who claim the Brazil election was "stolen"—which Tyrmand himself had suggested would happen months before voting commenced.
Bannon said that Bolsonaro "cannot concede" while also taking swipes at President Joe Biden, the U.S. State Department and the CIA.
"Screw Biden, screw the State Department, screw the CIA," Bannon said.
Similar to right-wing conspiracy theories about the 2020 U.S. election, Bannon and Tyrmand have previously suggested that electronic voting machines would be used to rig the vote against Bolsonaro.
In the Gettr live stream, Bannon urged Republicans to "out-vote" the machines in the upcoming U.S. midterm elections to counteract alleged attempts at voter fraud.
"Don't don't start sucking your thumb about machines. It is what it is," Bannon said.
"Brazil has got a different system that we got. They got to work with that, we got to work with ours."
Bannon also pushed further election fraud falsehoods saying that the "only way Democrats win is if they cheat."
He also spread misinformation about the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul Pelosi, describing it as "perturbations" for the Democrats ahead of the November 8 elections.
Separately, Bannon posted on Gettr that the Brazil election "was stolen in Broad Daylight" while claiming Tyrmand's previous analysis on how it would occur came to fruition.
Ahead of the Brazil vote, Bolsonaro's campaign made repeated and unsubstantiated claims of possible electoral manipulation. As of early Monday morning, Bolsonaro has still not conceded defeat.
In a victory speech at a hotel in Sao Paulo, Lula said: "The only winner is the Brazilian people."
He added: "This isn't a victory of mine or the Workers' Party, nor the parties that supported me in the campaign. It's the victory of a democratic movement that formed above political parties, personal interests and ideologies so that democracy came out victorious."
Lula's victory marks an incredible comeback for the man who was president of Brazil between 2003 and 2010.
He was jailed and banned from standing for office during the 2018 election after being convicted of taking bribes. A court later quashed his conviction in March 2021.
About the writer
Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, and Florida ... Read more