A publication circulates on social media stating that U.S. President-elect Joe Biden would have said that he does not want to be presented to President Jair Bolsonaro. According to the publication, Biden said he prefers to wait until Brazil elects a new president.
This information is false. There is no record that Joe Biden, recently elected to the post of President of the United States, said that he does not want to be presented to President Jair Bolsonaro until Brazil elects another president. No such statement was found, either in public interviews, reports, or on the Democrat’s official social media.
On Facebook, where the publication circulates, the image with the statement falsely attributed to Biden has already been shared more than 4 thousand times and has been marked with the “FALSE” seal by the social network verification tool.
Joe Biden has not mentioned Bolsonaro’s name in recent statements. During his campaign, the Democrat even mentioned Brazil in one of the presidential debates, which took place on October 29. At the time, when talking about climate change and the need to preserve the environment, Biden even said that: “the Amazon rainforest in Brazil is being cut down, it is being destroyed. More carbon dioxide is absorbed there than all the carbon emitted by the United States. I will try to make sure that countries around the world raise US $ 20 billion and say [to Brazil]: ‘Here are US $ 20 billion. Stop destroying the forest. If you don’t stop, you’ll face significant economic consequences ’”.
In response, commenting on Biden’s speech about possible trade sanctions on account of deforestation, Jair Bolsonaro, on November 10, spoke of a possible conflict: “We have just seen a great candidate for head of state say that if I don’t putting out the fire in the Amazon raises trade barriers against Brazil. How can we cope with all of this? Diplomacy is not enough. Because when you run out of saliva, you have to have gunpowder, if not, it doesn’t work. You don’t even need to use gunpowder, but you have to know you have it ”.
The Brazilian president, as well as Vladimir Putin (Russia) and Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Mexico), is part of the group of leaders who have not yet recognized Biden’s victory in the United States presidential elections, in which Joe Biden defeated Republican Donald Trump.
