If I had been the vice-presidential candidate, Bolsonaro wouldn't be in this situation, says Mourão

Vice President of the Republic from 2019 to 2022, reserve general and senator Hamilton Mourão ( Republicans -RS) said that, if he had not been overlooked by Walter Braga Netto on the government ticket in the last election, Jair Bolsonaro (PL) would have been reelected.

Thus, he added, neither the former president nor Braga Netto would experience today the ordeal of the trial in which they are responding for attempted coup, in which both are defendants – the latter, also a reserve general, has been imprisoned for more than seven months in a military unit in Rio.

"When Bolsonaro chose, he no longer wanted me to be his vice president. He stopped inviting me to ministerial meetings , and I no longer participated in anything. I think that if I had been his vice-presidential candidate, we would have won," Mourão said.

The senator-general was responding to a question from the reporter about whether being sidelined had ended up being a blessing for him. After giving this unusual answer, Mourão was asked about the hypothetical scenario he presented. If the government were to win, wouldn't what Bolsonaro, Braga Netto, and other military officers are facing now be happening?

"Nothing, nothing had happened, everyone was happy as can be," he replied, laughing.

The report asked Mourão to elaborate on the topic, explaining what leads him to believe that if he had been vice president in 2022 the result would have been different, but he did not respond.

This stance reveals how the senator seeks to differentiate himself from Braga Netto, whom he has been friends with for over 40 years and whom he has publicly defended.

Mourão is a rare case of a top general in the Bolsonaro government who has not gotten into legal trouble due to coup plots at the end of his term.

In the case pending before the Supreme Federal Court ( STF ), the senator was named as a witness by four defendants: fellow generals Augusto Heleno, Braga Netto, and Paulo Sérgio Nogueira, as well as Bolsonaro. All are part of the case's nucleus 1, accused by the Attorney General's Office of leading the criminal organization that plotted a coup to prevent Lula from taking office.

In his testimony to the court on May 23, Mourão said that he met with the defendants several times during the government transition, but that he never heard any mention of measures to break with the institution or to contest the election results.

He took the opportunity to praise Braga Netto: "Our families are friends"; "he built an extraordinary military career throughout a life entirely dedicated to the Army"; "my son is his volleyball partner, as am I" .

Regarding Augusto Heleno, the senator said in his testimony that the general is "an icon of our generation" and "a man who always led by example."

There wasn't the same deference shown to Bolsonaro—nor was there any expectation. Even before the midpoint of his term, the captain made his dissatisfaction with his vice president clear. In a 2021 interview, he explained the split. "Mourão does his job, he's very independent. Sometimes he gets in our way a bit, but the vice president is like a brother-in-law, right? You get married and have to put up with your brother-in-law by your side; you can't send your brother-in-law away."

Mourão admitted that he waged a cold war with Bolsonaro during his term and complained in 2022 that Bolsonaro never approached him to air his dirty laundry. "Obviously, I would have had a more detailed conversation with him about my role, to avoid the clashes that occurred and that needn't have occurred."

As for his friend Braga Netto, the former vice president considers his arrest "unjust and absurd, because he wasn't obstructing justice." "But, from Alexandre de Moraes' perspective, it's symbolic. He's keeping a four-star general in prison."

In April, Mourão was one of the senators authorized by the courts to visit Braga Neto at the headquarters of the 1st Army Division, in Vila Militar, in Rio, where the general has been detained since December, in a room.

The former vice president had 40 minutes to talk with his replacement on the Bolsonaro ticket, in a room near the one where he is confined . According to Mourão, they discussed "insignificant matters" and did not discuss the legal proceedings. "I found him to be well, thinner, obviously. He was tanned, because he gets an hour of sunlight to exercise every day."

The senator brought Braga Netto a gift of a book in English, which he had bought for himself and had already read, "The Generals: Patton, MacArthur, Marshall, and the Winning of World War II", by Winston Groom , the same author of the bestseller "Forrest Gump", which was the basis for the film.

The gifted volume tells the story of three US Army generals who played a decisive role in the Allied victory in the greatest war in history.

Mourão justified the gift this way: "Because it's a well-written book about leadership. And it's something that lifts the spirits of those who need a lift."