Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro launched a new attack on the press on Monday, after having threatened a reporter the day before to "shut his mouth with fists" for an embarrassing question about his wife. During the launch of a campaign entitled "Brazil beating the Covid-19" in Brasilia, President Bolsonaro accused journalists of "using the pen maliciously". “I have always been an athlete in the Armed Forces,” said the 65-year-old paratrooper, infected in July by the coronavirus and who notably invoked his form to explain his recovery.
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“The press people don't care, but when someone among these weaklings (journalists) catches it, the chances of survival are much lower. They only know malice ”. "I want to shut your mouth with fists," the far-right president replied to a journalist from the daily O Globo who questioned him about press reports according to which his wife Michelle had received payments in as part of a corruption case. “President @Jairbolsonaro, why did your wife Michelle receive 89 million reais from Fabrício Queiroz?” Hundreds of journalists, politicians, former allies of Bolsonaro and anonymous asked on social media Monday.
Crusoé magazine claimed this month that Fabricio Queiroz, a retired police officer, friend of Jair Bolsonaro and former adviser to Flavio Bolsonaro, son now senator to the president, deposited 21 checks for a total of 72,000 reals ( approximately $ 22,000 at 2016 exchange rate) into Michelle Bolsonaro's account between 2011 and 2016. Other documents indicate that Queiroz's wife deposited an additional 17,000 reais into Michelle Bolsonaro's account, bringing the total value to 89,000 yeah. Last year, the National Federation of Journalists (Fenaj) had counted that since coming to power on January 1, 2019, Jair Bolsonaro had launched 116 attacks against the press. He had notably declared that journalists were "an endangered species".