'I did not flee Brazil,' Bolsonaro says after landing in US following election defeat
Incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva defeated Flavio Bolsonaro on Sunday.
Defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro, who is under investigation by authorities in Brazil, fled his country and landed in the U.S. Wednesday morning.
Bolsonaro landed at Miami-Opa Locka Executive airport in Florida shortly after 9 a.m. ET, accompanied by his family.
Images captured the plane touching down in South Florida and Bolsonaro, who was defeated by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Sunday's runoff election, coming off the jet.
The family was being shielded from photographers by umbrellas as they left the airport.
President Donald Trump's administration is issuing Bolsonaro and his family visas, a State Department official told ABC News.
On Tuesday, Brazilian authorities said they were unaware were investigating whether he fled to the U.S., according to authorities familiar with the investigation.
The former presidential candidate is under investigation over a sports betting case and for a probe into the production of a movie about his father, Jair Bolsonaro, who served as Brazil's president from 2019 to 2023, according to Brazilian authorities.
Bolsonaro released a statement Wednesday afternoon thanking Argentina's government and Trump for helping him leave Brazil.
He claimed, without any evidence, that there was fraud in Sunday's elections.
"Given the political weaponization of justice in Brazil, I brought my family to the United States, where we are safe," Bolsonaro said in a statement.
"I did not flee Brazil. I left Brazil -- left a state of exception -- so I could be the leader my people deserve," he added.
Trump was asked about the situation by reporters Wednesday and refused to say who he believed won Brazil's presidential election.
"But I know that we gave him a pass to come into the country, so we'll see," Trump told reporters on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews Wednesday.
"But I won't get involved. It was a very strange election, that's for sure," he added.
When asked by reporters why he granted a visa to Bolsonaro and his family to come to the U.S., Trump said that he thought they had been "treated very unfairly" in Brazil. The president said Wednesday he had not spoken to the presidential candidate.
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