President Joe Biden welcomed Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to the White House on Feb. 10, saying that “both of our democracies have been tested of late” and in both countries, “democracy prevailed.”
Biden’s comments referred to the U.S. Capitol breach on Jan. 6, 2021, and this year’s Jan. 8 event, when supporters of Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed the capital and flooded into the Congress, Supreme Court, and presidential offices.
Biden greeted Lula and First Lady Rosângela (Janja) Lula da Silva shortly before 4 p.m. on the White House south grounds.
First Lady Jill Biden was absent because of illness.
The two leaders posed for an official photo, waved to the media, and entered the White House, walking along the colonnade before settling in the Oval Office.
Before the meeting, the Brazilian government said Lula’s agenda when talking to Biden would focus on climate change, defense of democracy, the economy, global issues, and regional issues.
A former labor leader who helped establish the left-wing Workers’ Party, Lula was elected to Brazil’s Congress in 1986. He unsuccessfully ran for president three times before winning 20 years ago and serving two terms from 2003 to 2010.
Lula was convicted of corruption and money laundering in 2018 and sentenced to 12 years in jail. He was released after only 18 months behind bars, when the Supreme Federal Court ruled that the judge in his case was biased.
During their meeting at the White House, Lula thanked Biden for recognizing his election. After the Jan. 8 event, Biden invited Lula to Washington.
Mutual Agendas
“When we spoke in January, I affirmed my commitment to our relationship. And when we spoke about our mutual agendas, they sound very similar,” Biden told Lula.“The two largest democracies in the hemisphere, Brazil and the United States, stand together,” Biden said. “We reject political violence, and we put great value in our democratic institutions.”
Speaking in Portuguese, Lula told Biden that Brazil “isolated from the world itself for four years” during Bolsonaro’s term.
Lula added that his predecessor consumed “fake news morning, afternoon, and night.”
Biden responded by saying, “Sounds familiar.”
Biden’s comment was a reference to former President Donald Trump, who often talked about “fake news” during his tenure.
“Brazilians like peace, democracy, Carnaval, samba, and joy,” Lula said.
In response, Biden smiled and pumped his fist in the air.
Lula called the incidents on Jan. 8, 2023, and Jan. 6, 2021, acts of violence and insurrection that can never be allowed to happen again.
He also emphasized the need to advance climate change, especially in the Amazon, and criticized Bolsonaro’s policies on that issue.
In a TV interview last week, Lula said, “Here, there’s also a split, much more, or as serious as Brazil—Democrats and Republicans are very split up. Love it or leave it, that’s more or less what’s going on.
“Never could we imagine that in a country that was the symbol of democracy in the world, someone could try to invade the Capitol.”
Bolsonaro arrived in the United States before Lula’s inauguration on New Year’s Day and is currently in Florida. The former president is under investigation in Brazil for his alleged role in last month’s event.
Bolsonaro is a “faithful copycat of Trump,” Lula said in the interview.
“I am convinced that not everybody that voted for Bolsonaro follows Bolsonarism,” Lula continued.
When he was vice president in 2009, Biden met Lula for the first time.
Lula was elected on Oct. 30, 2022, and Biden called him the next day. Biden talked to Lula a second time on Jan. 9 to offer support after the attack on Brazil’s government buildings.
Elizabeth Bagley, the new U.S. ambassador to Brazil, met Lula last week and said both presidents have “very engaging personalities” and that she’s “fully confident they will be best friends.”
Biden sees Lula “as not only a leader in his own country, but a regional leader and a global leader,” Bagley added.
Feb. 10 was a day filled with meetings for Biden. He met with U.S. governors at the White House in the morning before his summit with Lula in the afternoon.
The White House also announced that Biden will travel to Poland on Feb. 20 ahead of the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
During a press briefing in the afternoon, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby announced that the U.S. military shot down a “high-altitude object” over the frozen waters of Alaska under Biden’s orders.
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