Biden adviser: Elections likely to come up in meeting with Brazil’s Bolsonaro

President Biden will likely bring up the issue of maintaining free and fair elections during a one-on-one meeting with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro this week, as Bolsonaro has cast doubt on the reliability of elections ahead of his own reelection bid.

“There are no topics off limits in any bilateral the president does, including with President Bolsonaro,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters aboard Air Force One. “I do anticipate that the president will discuss open, free, fair, transparent, democratic elections.”

Bolsonaro, who has drawn comparisons to former President Trump, was among the last world leaders to recognize Biden’s victory in 2020. The Brazilian leader again this week claimed there was widespread fraud in the 2020 U.S. elections, something repeated audits and recounts have disproved.

Bolsonaro has in the past sown doubt about Brazilian election results, a point of concern for some watchdogs ahead of the country’s elections in October.

Opinion polls have shown Bolsonaro is trailing leftist candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

This week’s meeting at the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles will mark the first time Biden and Bolsonaro have met in person since Biden took office in January 2021.

Sullivan said climate change will likely also come up in the conversation between the two leaders. Bolsonaro has shrugged off concerns about climate change in the past, and the White House and climate groups have watched with concern as Brazil moves forward with deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, which absorbs significant amounts of carbon.