Report: Brazilian president asked Biden to aid him in his re-election during last week’s meeting

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro asked US President Joe Biden for help in his re-election bid during a private meeting on the sidelines of a regional summit this week, according to anonymous sources close to the matter.

During the meeting on Thursday, Biden underlined the importance of preserving the integrity of Brazil’s democratic electoral process, and when Bolsonaro asked for help, Biden moved to change the subject, one of the people said.

The almost hour-long meeting, their first since Biden’s election in 2020, took place mostly in private during the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles. Bolsonaro told reporters afterward that he and Biden “talked superficially” about the election. In public comments at the start of their meeting, Biden said that Brazil has a vibrant, inclusive democracy and strong electoral institutions.

Bolsonaro, who had previously received a reelection endorsement from former President Donald Trump, will be facing Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a world-renowned leftist who is currently leading by a margin of 54% to 32%.

Lula, who was president from 2003 to 2010, had a good relationship with US President Barack Obama, whom Biden served as vice president. Obama said of Lula in 2009, “This is my man” and “I love this guy.”

In remarks to a local television station in Brazil on June 7, Bolsonaro claimed there was widespread fraud in the US election that Biden won. “I have my sources of information that there really was a lot of fraud there,” he said at the time. “Nobody talks about that. If it was enough to define (victory) for one or the other, I don’t know.” Bolsonaro has made similar claims about the electronic voting system in Brazil.

Bolsonaro was one of the last world leaders to congratulate Biden for his victory, causing some friction between the two nations for some time. Despite this, reports outlining their Thursday meeting are mostly positive. Bolsonaro even described the meeting as “fantastic.”