Brazilian television presenter Thayse Teixeira lost her job a day after publicly questioning the handling of the country’s disputed presidential election. SBT confirmed her dismissal on October 28th. Her departure followed an on-air confrontation over extended voting hours and her defense of presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro.
The exchange unfolded during the October 27th edition of “Fofocalizando,” SBT’s entertainment program. Its presenters were discussing reports of Bolsonaro’s departure from Brazil. Teixeira defended his decision to leave, citing threats against him, before turning her criticism toward the decision to prolong voting in the presidential runoff.
Teixeira questioned the unprecedented change and continued criticizing the process after colleagues challenged her. “Everything is wrong in this country,” she said, translated from Portuguese. Fellow presenter Matheus Baldi disputed her suggestion about the extension’s effect, while other participants pointed to requests for additional voting time from both campaigns.
As Terra reported, SBT announced the termination of Teixeira’s contract the day after her election remarks and thanked her for her work, and wished her success. Her assignments had also included “Programa do Ratinho.” The network’s statement didn’t directly identify her election remarks as the reason for ending her employment.
The dispute concerns Brazil’s October 25th presidential runoff between incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known as Lula, of the far-left Workers’ Party, and conservative Senator Flávio Bolsonaro. Flávio is the son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Brazil uses a runoff when no presidential candidate wins an outright majority of valid votes in the first round. The country’s electoral court declared Lula the winner, but Flávio rejected the outcome and accused the government and judiciary of interfering in the election.
At the center of the dispute was Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin, who had represented Lula as his personal defense lawyer before joining the highest court in Brazil, as Reuters reported. Zanin ordered voting extended by two hours on election day, an unprecedented move Flávio denounced as illegal interference benefiting Lula.
Kassio Nunes Marques, president of Brazil’s electoral court, subsequently acknowledged that the order arrived after the scheduled 5 p.m. closing time, when thousands of voting machines had already been shut down. Marques said there was no existing rule authorizing the extension and described the technical and operational difficulties created by the late decision.
"*" indicates required fields
Flávio faced restrictions from Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who ordered his Brazilian passport canceled and barred him from contacting businessman and lawyer Willer Tomaz. As CNN Brasil reported, the two men were subjects of the same investigation into alleged money laundering and illegal transfers of funds abroad, explaining Tomaz’s connection to the order. Federal Police notified Flávio on October 26th, the day after the runoff, that he had to surrender his travel documents.
Flávio subsequently fled Brazil with his wife and two daughters, crossing into Argentina before boarding a private jet that traveled through Ecuador to Miami on October 28th. UOL reported that Santiago Caputo, an adviser to Argentine President Javier Milei, helped escort the family to the Argentine airport. President Donald Trump approved their entry into the United States, and his administration announced that it would provide visas.
Watch Teixeira’s on-air exchange here:
Once in the United States, Flávio issued a letter accusing Lula and the Supreme Court of electoral fraud and political persecution, reproduced in full by UOL. He alleged that the court had overstepped its authority by extending voting and that Lula had abused government resources during the campaign. He denounced the investigation as a “politically motivated witch hunt,” translated from Portuguese.
He accused the judiciary of using criminal investigations and proceedings to attempt to silence Lula’s political opponents. He pointed to his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is currently under house arrest that began in March, and argued that authorities were preparing to subject him to the same political persecution.
In Flávio’s account, confiscating his passports was the first step toward electronic monitoring, censorship, house arrest and a predetermined conviction. He said he had taken his family abroad for their safety. Thanking Trump and Milei, he announced plans to lead the opposition from outside Brazil and organize peaceful political action. “I left Brazil, but I did not abandon Brazilians,” he wrote.
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video.