U.S. Rep. Mark Green (R-TN), who voted to toss out the 2020 election results after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, took a trip to Brazil to meet with lawmakers in the country to discuss "voting integrity policies" in 2021. And now that country just faced an attempted coup eerily similar to the Jan. 6 insurrection in the states.
Oh, but it gets worse. He's going to chair the Homeland Security Committee.
Green was there while Bolsonaro was claiming widespread voter fraud corrupted the election. And as with Trump, Bolsonaro had no evidence to back that claim up.
Via The New York Times (2021):
Steve Bannon, Mr. Trump's former chief strategist, has said President Bolsonaro will only lose if "the machines" steal the election. Representative Mark Green, a Tennessee Republican who has pushed laws combating voter fraud, met with lawmakers in Brazil to discuss "voting integrity policies."
And President Bolsonaro's son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, gave perhaps his most elaborate presentation on what he said were manipulated Brazilian elections in Sioux Falls, S.D. He was at an August event hosted by Mike Lindell, the pillow executive being sued for defaming voting-machine makers.
Authorities, including academics, Brazil's electoral officials and the U.S. government, all have said that there has not been fraud in Brazil's elections. Eduardo Bolsonaro has insisted there was. "I can't prove — they say — that I have fraud," he said in South Dakota. "So, OK, you can't prove that you don't."
I emphasized that because it's so fucked up. That sounds like Stop the Steal's Ali Alexander, who has been cheering on the insurrection in Brazil. In late 2022, he said the quiet part out loud.
"Here is what I would say to Joe Biden: Any election I don't like is stolen," he said. "Any election where you get 81 million tabulations, not votes, is stolen. It's pretty simple. If I don't like it, it's stolen. If I like it, it's not stolen. If you win, it's stolen."
Why not just let the Oath Keepers chair the committee, too? Fuckit, let Bannon on the committee as well. We're in a lot of trouble. Anyone that tried to overturn the 2022 election should not be rewarded with a powerful position that allows them to be privy to our country's secrets.
