Demings ‘regrets’ backing right-wing Brazilian pol
Right-wing Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro has been in the center of a storm of criticism about his comments on gays and women and his affinity for Brazil’s former military dictatorship.
But according to a pro-Bolsonaro video posted on YouTube and first reported by Miami station WLRN, the controversial candidate had at least one enthusiastic fan in Orlando: Orange County Mayorelect Jerry Demings, who now says he was misled and “regrets” his endorsement.
In video that appeared to be shot during the Brazilian Day Orlando festival at Lake Eola on Sept. 9, Sheriff Demings, who had been elected as Orange County mayor two weeks earlier, can be seen endorsing Bolsonaro while onstage at the Eola bandstand.
“And I understand that you have a little bit of an election coming soon for your next president,” Demings is shown telling the crowd. “We will be supporting Bolsonaro!”
Demings is also shown shouting into a camera in close-up, “Bolsonaro, Bolsonaro, Bolsonaro!”
Bolsonaro was the leading vote-getter in Sunday’s first round of Brazilian elections and will face Fernando Haddad in a runoff.
Bolsonaro has praised Brazil’s former military dictatorship, which has been blamed for the disappearance and torture of hundreds of opponents, calling the regime “glorious” in 2015 and having said in 1993, “I am in favor of a dictatorship. We will never resolve serious national problems with this irresponsible democracy.” He also said Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who is considered responsible for at least 3,000 deaths, should have killed even more people.
Bolsonaro also has called for greater leeway for law enforcement to shoot and kill criminals, despite Brazilian police having killed 4,000 people in 2017, and called for the execution of Workers Party members at an event last month.
He has said he could never love a son who was gay and would “prefer that he die in an accident than show up with a mustachioed guy. He’d be dead to me anyway.” He also said a congresswoman “doesn’t deserve to be raped, because she’s very ugly.”
A spokesman for Demings, a Democrat elected to the nonpartisan position of mayor, said Thursday he was “only given brief information by a group of Brazilian citizens ... that Mr. Bolsonaro was a popular leader in Brazil.”
Having learned more about the candidate, Demings “denounces any support for Mr. Bolsonaro … and regrets that he was misled.”
U.S. Rep. Val Demings, who was shown in the video alongside her husband clapping but was not shown speaking, said Thursday, “I was on the program to bring greetings as Orlando celebrated our diverse communities. I did not make any endorsements.”