- Well now in the news,
he's being called theTrump of the Tropics.
And Brazilians' new PresidentBolsonaro wasted no time
in rolling back left-wingagendas when he took office.
He met with President Trumpyesterday at the White House.
And then we had thehonor of praying with him
as a group of evangelicalsmet shortly after his visit
to the Oval Office.
Bolsonaro sat down with our George Thomas
for this exclusive interview.
- [George] Jair Bolsonaro isin America to tell Donald Trump
that he has a president,who not only admires him,
but is also a friend of the Unites States.
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Translator] It is timeto overcome old resistances
and explore the very best potential
between Brazil and the Unites States.
After all, it is fair to say
that today Brazil does have a president
that is not anti-American.
- [George] During a two-hour meeting
at the White House Tuesday,
which included a luncheon andRose Garden press conference,
the two leaders signed agreements
and discussed how to work together
to end the upheaval in Venezuela.
President Trump said Bolsonaro'shistoric election win
marked a new day in Brazil and a new era
in friendship with the United States.
- I wanna congratulate you again
on your tremendous electionvictory last October.
It was an incredible feat
and really a truly incredible challenge.
And the end result was
something the wholeworld was talking about.
- [George] By all accounts,Bolsonaro's inauguration
as Brazil's 38th presidentwas a significant milestone
in the world's fifth largest country.
After years of leftist rule,
the 63-year-old formerparatrooper, turned politician,
is the first conservative president
in Brazil's democratic era.
- [Translator] My campaigndidn't have a lot of money.
Almost all the media inBrazil was against us.
So it was a huge miracle that we won.
- And now just 78 daysinto his presidency,
Bolsonaro is already shaking up
Brazil's political establishment.
Unlike previous administrations
that pursued an aggressive anti-American
and anti-Israel foreign policy,
Bolsonaro is pushing for stronger ties
with the United States and Israel,
even announcing shortlyafter winning the presidency
that he intends to movehis country's embassy
from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
- President Bolsonaro?
- Okay.- George Thomas,
pleasure to meet you, sir.
Welcome to the United States.
Following his meeting with President Trump
Bolsonaro sat down foran exclusive interview
with CBN News at BlairHouse, located steps
from the White House.
Blair House is used forvisiting dignitaries
and foreign heads of state.
You've discussed movingyour country's embassy
from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
When is that going to happen,
and why is this important to Brazil?
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Translator] Each country has the right
to decide where it's own capital is,
and the capital ofIsrael became Jerusalem.
Therefore we are studying the possibility
of making that decision at the right time.
When Trump took over, ittook him almost nine months
to make that decision, andI am now in my third month.
- [George] Bolsonaro is often referred to
as the Trump of the Tropics.
Like President Trump,
Bolsonaro believes the mainstream media
is fiercely opposed tohis presidency and agenda.
And Bolsonaro alsoregularly uses social media
to connect directly with his supporters.
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Translator] To a large extent,I support what Trump does.
He wants to make America great
and I also want to make Brazil great.
I also have concerns aboutthe indiscriminate entrance
of foreigners without any criteria.
But beyond this, we are both Christians
and are God-fearing men.
(loud shouting)
- [George] Bolsonaro'smiddle name is Messias,
Portuguese for Messiah.
He is a Catholic, and his wife Michelle
is a protestant evangelicalwho attends a Baptist church.
An assassination attempt bya knife-wielding attacker
a month before the election
almost cost Bolsonaro his life.
He says it is nothing short of a miracle
that he's alive today.
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Translator] Doctors who attended to me
said that for every 100stabbings of the kind I endured,
only one person survives.
So I am a survivor and owe my life to God.
It was his will for me to live.
- [George] The attackbecame a turning point
in his campaign as the populouscandidate went on to win,
promising to tackle Brazil'srapid corruption and violence.
Two months into his presidency
Bolsonaro is shakingBrazil's political world,
even standing up to dictators
like Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro.
Both Bolsonaro and Trump refuse to say
whether military plans were on the table
to intervene in Venezuela.
- [Translator] I discussedthis matter with Trump,
and obviously that conversationwill remain private.
Trump says all possibilitiesare on the table.
And I, in large part, support decisions
of the American government.
(speaking in foreign language)
(crowd clapping and cheering)
- [George] Bolsonarohas surrounded himself
with well-known Brazilian evangelicals,
like Pastor Silas Malafaia,who regularly visits
and prays with Bolsonaro.
Silas told CBN News thathe believes Bolsonaro
is God's chosen man to lead Brazil.
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Translator] Even thoughBolsonaro is not an evangelical,
he always defends the principles
that we evangelicals have defended.
Namely, he is against abortion.
He is against the privilegeof the LGBTQ movement.
He recognizes the greatnessand importance of Israel,
defends the family, andwants to fight corruption
and restore our economy.
- [George] On his firstofficial day as president,
Bolsonaro promised to makeJudeo-Christian principles
a top priority in his administration.
Can you talk about the impact
that decades of leftist ideology has had
on the social andspiritual fabric of Brazil?
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Translator] The ideology of the left
has taken over the universities
and also the journalists of Brazil.
The impact has been the worst possible.
And one of the main goalsis to erode family values.
- [George] It was this kind of message
that drove the majorityof Brazil's evangelicals
to support Bolsonaro.
- [Translator] The evangelicals of Brazil
are equivalent to athird of the population
and are growing.
I had massive support from them,
because until recently,they had no one to support,
who shared their values and faith.
- Your motto is Brazil aboveeverything, God above all.
What do you mean by that?
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Translator] I have beena congressman for 28 years,
and I saw that in politicstruth almost never existed.
And my feeling is thatour people are thirsty
to know the truth.
- [George] His favoriteBible verse is John 8:32,
then you will know thetruth, and the truth
will set you free.
Why is faith so importantto you, Mister President?
- [Translator] Just like any marriage
between a man and a woman,if you don't have truth,
the marriage ends quickly.
In politics, if you don't have truth,
the government ends quickly.
- [George] After our interview,President Bolsonaro met
with a group of prominentAmerican evangelical leaders,
among them, the ChristianBroadcasting Network's
Doctor Pat Robertson and Gordon Robertson
and evangelist Reinhard Bonnke.
The American delegationprayed for Bolsonaro
and promised to standwith his administration
as he fights to protectBrazil's Christian heritage
and family values.
They also pledged to help Brazilprovide humanitarian relief
for those suffering in Venezuela.
Why is this meeting importantto you, Mister President?
- [Translator] I recognizethe work evangelicals do
in my country, which is no different
to what they do around the world,
sharing the word of God andstrengthening family values.
- George joins us nowfrom the White House.
And George, what do you think?
When you go away from this man,
what's your deep impression?
Do you think this relationshipbetween Brazil and America
is gonna be long-lasting?
- There is absolutely no doubt.
I mean, you have tounderstand the context, Pat,
of Latin America.
3/4 of Latin America has beenruled by leftist governments.
Brazil was one of them foralmost two decades, Pat.
And Bolsonaro came on the scene
pretty much from political obscurity,
and he saw what theleftist ideology was doing
to his nation.
And as a man of deep faith he realized
that the leftist ideology wanted
to launch an all-out assault on the family
and to introduce all these things
that was against the Bible and his belief.
And so he ran on that platform,
promising to restore the family,
promising integrity to the nation.
And in the process, he saidtwo decades of leftist ideology
we coddled Iran, we coddledCuba, we coddled Venezuela.
Those days are over.
Typically, when the newadministration comes
into Brazilian power, they typically,
their first overseas trip,Pat, is to Venezuela or Cuba.
Bolsonaro said, no, we are in a new era.
My first bilateral trip isgoing to be to Washington DC.
Right after he became the president
he said we are going to move our embassy
in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Again, it was a seismic shift,
and obviously he's takingthe blow back from that.
Various Latin Americancountries are making fun of him
that he is coddling andcozying up to the Yankees,
to President Trump.
But clearly, he has seta tone for his country,
and Brazilians are supporting him.
They said they are also fed upwith this leftist government.
Look at what it has brought.
And Bolsonaro kept sayingduring his campaign,
do you guys want to be like Venezuela?
If that's what youwant, don't vote for me.
- (laughs) George, speaking of Venezuela,
that Maduro is getting worse.
It's now like two millionpercent inflation, it's unreal.
I mean, we just can't conceiveof anything of such poverty.
Did you talk about militaryintervention with him at all?
- We did, I asked thatquestion directly to him.
Obviously, he said thatis a private matter
that he and PresidentTrump had spoken about.
President Trump said he has a plan.
He has an idea of howto deal with Venezuela
during the press conference.
He was asked that questiona number of times.
Again, both leaders refusedto reveal their hand
on what they want to do.
Keep in mind, Brazil has direct contact,
military-to-military contact,with the Venezuelan Army.
And President Trump is hoping,
encouraging President Bolsonaro,
listen, will you put somepressure on the Venezuelan Army?
Keep in mind, Pat, youknow this very well,
the Venezuelan Army, how they fall,
whether they fall for theinterim president Juan Guaido
or will they continue toswear allegiance to Maduro
is a very, very big factor.
And so what the Brazilians aresaying to their counterparts
in Venezuela, listen, ifyou abandon your allegiance
to Maduro, we will not arrestyou for your alliance with him
for things that you have done.
This is a new day.
This is a new opportunity to restore hope,
to restore democracy in Venezuela.
- Well, George, it wasa great day yesterday,
and I'm so glad you were there.
And I was thrilled when weprayed with the president.
And his heart is so warmtoward evangelicals.
And he understands.
It's amazing, it's almostthe same percentages.
Trump got, oh, maybe, 83%or more of the evangelicals
in America, which is the mostsolid broken voting bloc,
and Bolsonaro is the same thing in Brazil.
- That's right.
In fact, he even mentionedthat to you, Pat.
He said, when you wereall around that table,
he says, I am in a familiar place.
I feel like I'm at home, becausehe knows the relationship
that he has had with the evangelicals.
Remember, evangelicalsfor such a long time
they had their allegiances splattered
across so many different candidates.
Then when Bolsonaro came on the scene,
and they saw what a deepman of faith he was,
his wife Michelle is an evangelical,
attends a Baptist church, as I mentioned.
When they saw his heart and his desire
to restore moral valuesto uphold the word of God,
to uphold Judeo-Christianprinciples, they said, wow!
We've never had such a candidate before.
It's impossible to even imagine
that such a candidate could even win.
And so they threw intheir support for him.
And today what you have here, Pat,
is a seismic tectonic political shift
in the largest South American country,
and it is giving notice tothe rest of Latin America.
As you have seen, theBrexit in England, Germany,
in other parts of Europe,you're seeing this right turn.
And clearly, Bolsonaro is partof that wave you are seeing,
not just in South America,but around the world.
- George, thank you very much,
and thank you for your reporting.
It was a moment--- You're welcome, sir.
Thank you.- Important moment.
We were deeply touched.
I mean, it was marvelous
as a number of us were there together.
And I was there side by side
with my dear friend Reinhard Bonnke.
And we both prayed for the president
and asked God's blessing on him.
Well, more than 15 Democrats
are already running for president.
And the claim has been madethat Donald Trump is a wild man,
and he's seeking to overturnthe foundational principles
of our nation.
Well, this bunch are proposing big changes
in the American political system,
like putting more justiceson the Supreme Court.
Roosevelt was a dominant roleof the Senate and the House
couldn't pack the court,
and these people are gonna pack the court.
They wanna put in morejudges on the Supreme Court.
And that's just the start.
They wanna change the Electoral College.
And just down the line,it's radical proposals.
Dale Hurd has that.
- If you can't win, change the rules,
President Trump argues.
That seems to be thethought of some Democrats
who've decided America'spolitical system needs an update.
Big on their list is abolishingthe Electoral College
and using the popular vote
to determine who's elected president.
- We can have national voting,
and that means get ridof the Electoral College.
- [Dale] It was the Electoral College vote
that gave Donald Trump the victory
over Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Clinton won the popular vote.
The founding fathers institutedthe Electoral College
to protect the nation froma large faction of voters
who might want to introduce tyranny.
But now Colorado hasjoined 11 other states
in support of a movementto use a popular vote
to elect our president.
Some Democrats also wantto add more justices
to the Supreme Court, which in their view
has become increasingly conservative.
Beto O'Rourke wants toexpand the high court
to as many as 15 justicesand give them term limits.
Another Democratic proposal is
to lower the voting age to 16.
President Trump tweeted his response
to the Democratic plans overnight saying,
the Democrats are getting very strange.
They now want to changethe voting age to 16,
abolish the Electoral College,
and increase significantly the number
of Supreme Court justices.
Actually, you've got towin it at the ballot box.
The president alsoguarantees the Supreme Court
will not be expanded for sixyears while he's in office.
- Ladies and gentlemen,this country is called,
not the Democratic America,
it's called the United States of America.
That's why there werestates that came together.
And it was the states thatmade up the Constitution
and made up this Republic,and it's the United States.
And so each of those states,
and the little states understood
that the big populousstates could overwhelm them,
and that's why they setup the Electoral College,
so they would give a voteto all the small states,
so that everybody would have a voice
and there just wouldn't be one huge state,
like California or New York,who would swamp the system.
That's why the ElectoralCollege is so very important.
Well, Dale, let me ask you.
These are shocking proposals
to radically overhaul the government.
They've accused Trumpof this, haven't they?
- Yeah, and it's not clear at all
that this is constitutional.
I mean, as you've said, Imean, the Constitution lays out
a state-by-state systemfor electing our president.
I have something that's a little funny.
It's kind of shortsighted.
I mean, they're assuming the Democrats
will keep winning the popular vote.
Well, Trump could easilywin the popular vote
in the next election.
Is California going toreally tell their electors
to vote for Trump?
I find that hard to believe.
- (laughing) Well, what else do you see
that these radicals are doing?
I mean, it's just crazy thestuff they're proposing,
but this...
Give me some of the radical proposals
that they're coming up with.
- Well, they want toincrease the Supreme Court.
That's not going to pass muster either.
I mean, they need aconstitutional convention
to do the kind of stuff they wanna do.
And I just don't see that happening.
Americans need to appreciate the purpose
of our Electoral College,which is it unifies the nation.
If it was popular voteonly, our candidates
wouldn't even campaign incertain parts of the country.
They would only campaignin their strongholds.
The Electoral College keeps them honest,
and it actually unifies the nation.
And it also encourages a two-party system.
If it was popular vote,
who knows how many parties we might have?
- Well, we're looking andappreciate that story.
And ladies and gentlemen,
it's just beginning, the radicalization.
Free tuition for everybody.
Free healthcare for everybody.
A guaranteed annual wage foreverybody in the country.
And it goes on and on and on.
And the proposals about the Green New Deal
are so radical it will destroy.
They wanna do away with airplane travel.
They wanna do away with car travel.
They wanna do with fossil fuels.
They wanna take away coaland gas from the utilities,
and it goes on and on.
And Mitch McConnell isgoing to force the vote
in the Senate on the Green New Deal
to put them on record,because this is so crazy.
And with the debt levelright now of 200 and,
well, whatever it is.
I forget how many trillions of dollars,
but (laughing) it's 22trillion going on 30 trillion.
The numbers are so staggering
and yet these people wannago up, up, up, up, up and up.
And it looks like when this is happening,
somebody's going to call the tune.
But I think when it comesout, it's gonna be time.
We're looking at Joe Biden, and he's going
to probably be the candidate.
And Joe is a very nice man,but he's a bit leftist,
and once he becomes the nominee,
the idea from the Republicans is gonna be
to kneecap him as fast as they can.
So you can see some rather nastystuff coming down the pike.
