Here’s What Jair Bolsonaro Thinks

Brazil has a fascist presidential frontrunner. Here are 20 of Jair Bolsonaro's most racist and reactionary statements.

A Bolsonaro supporter's car in Brasília, Brazil on October 21, 2018. Alessandro Dias / Flickr

  1. “Pinochet should have killed more people.” Veja, December 2, 1998.
  2. “I have five children. Four were boys, on the fifth I got weak and had a daughter.” Speech at the Clube Hebraica, Rio de Janeiro, April 3, 2017.
  3. “Let’s shoot all the PT members here in Acre [a Brazilian state].” Campaign event on September 1, 2018.
  4. “My advice and I do it: I cheat on my taxes as much as possible. If I don’t need to pay anything, I don’t pay.” Programa Câmera Aberta, Band RJ, May 23, 1999.
  5. “There is not the least doubt! I would organize a coup on the same day, the same day!” Bolsonaro in response to the question of what he would do with the National Congress if elected president. Programa Câmera Aberta, Band RJ, May 23, 1999.
  6. “If your son begins to act like this, sort of gay, he deserves a smack and he’ll change his behavior.” TV Câmara, October 17, 2010.
  7. “I’m favorable to torture and you know this.” Programa Câmera Aberta, Band RJ, May 23, 1999.
  8. “I don’t run this risk since my sons were very well educated and haven’t lived in environments like yours, lamentably.” In response to a question by a black woman reporter who asked what he would do if one of his sons dated a black woman. Programa CQC, Band TV, March 29, 2011.
  9. “Through the vote you will not change anything in this country, right? Nothing! Absolutely nothing! You will only change, unfortunately, on the day when we begin a civil war here inside. And doing the job that the Military Regime didn’t do: killing thirty thousand! Beginning with FHC [Fernando Henrique Cardoso, president at the time]! … If some innocents die, alright; in every war innocent people die. I would even be happy if I died as long as thirty thousand others died together with me.” Programa Câmera Aberta, Band RJ, May 23, 1999.
  10. “The situation of the country would be better today if the dictatorship had killed more people.” Folha de São Paulo, June 30, 1999.
  11. “What historic debt do we have with blacks? I never enslaved them. The Portuguese never set foot in Africa. The blacks were delivered by blacks.” Programa Roda Viva, July 30, 2018.
  12. “I never beat my ex-wife. But I thought of shooting her various times.” Revista IstoÉ, February 14, 2000.
  13. “Who never spanked a child on the bum and then had regrets? It happens.” On executions authorized by ex-President Geisel during the military dictatorship. Radio Super Noticia, May 11, 2018.
  14. “I went to a quilombola [maroon settlement] in El Dourado Paulista. Look, the lightest African descendant there weighed 100 kg. They don’t do anything. They don’t even serve to reproduce.” Speech at the Clube Hebraica, Rio de Janeiro, April 3, 2017.
  15. “God above everything. There is no such thing as this secular state. The state is Christian and the minority will have to change, if they can. The minorities will have to adapt to the position of the majority.” Speech at the Aeroporto João Suassuna, Campina Grande, February 8, 2017.
  16. “I’m not going to combat or discriminate, but if I see two men kissing on the street, I’m going to hit them.” Folha de São Paulo, May 19, 2002.
  17. “I would never rape you because you don’t deserve it.” Jair Bolsonaro to Federal Deputy, Maria do Rosário, November 2003.
  18. “And mistresses? Are they prohibited too?” Commenting on a law that would ban nepotism in government jobs. Folha de São Paulo, April 14, 2005.
  19. “The big mistake was to torture and not kill. Fuck them! Fuck them!” Commenting on the possibility of a revision in the Amnesty Law which would lead to the punishment of torturers during the military dictatorship. August 7, 2008.
  20. “I would be unable to love a gay son. I won’t be a hypocrite here: I would prefer that my son die in an accident rather than appear with a [gay] moustache. For me, he would be dead.” Playboy, 2011.