WASHINGTON, D.C.: United States President Joe Biden and his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said at the White House on Friday that the two biggest countries in the Americas had successfully seen off attacks on their democracies and would now work together on fighting the climate crisis.
"Both our nations' strong democracies have been tested," Biden told Lula, and "both in the United States and Brazil, democracy prevailed."
Meeting in the Oval Office, Biden and Lula expressed solidarity over their similar paths.
Biden defeated Donald Trump in November 2020, but two months later, a mob of Trump supporters stormed the US Congress, believing his conspiracy theory that he had been the real election winner.
In Brazil, Lula defeated right-winger Jair Bolsonaro and took office in January, but a mob of Bolsonaro supporters stormed government buildings in the capital Brasilia shortly after.
"We have some issues on which we can work together," Lula told Biden. "First is to never again allow" the anti-democratic mob attacks.
Touting Brazil's return to the international arena, Lula said his predecessor's "world started and ended with fake news — in the morning, afternoon and at night. It seemed that he despised international relations."
Biden, referring to Trump, quickly answered: "Sounds familiar."
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