BRAZIL, US POLITICSFebruary 19, 2020
Bloomberg surrogate was PR guru for Brazils extreme-right leader Bolsonaro
Former Michael Bloomberg aide Arick Wierson, who is pushing the
billionaires 2020 presidential campaign and attacking Bernie Sanders,
helped elect far-right demagogue Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil.
By Ben Norton
A Michael Bloomberg surrogate pumping up the billionaires 2020 campaign for
president also helped to elect Brazils extreme-right leader, Jair
Bolsonaro, an open supporter of military dictatorship who frequently
threatens violence against his political opponents.
Arick Wierson is a public relations strategist who served as a political
aide and the top communications adviser to Bloomberg when the Republican
media mogul was mayor of New York City.
Wierson worked with Bloomberg for nearly nine years, he noted, first as an
aide in his 2001 political campaign, and later as his chief media advisor at
City Hall. Wierson is so close with the billionaire he sarcastically refers
to himself in his Twitter profile as a Former Media Hack for Mayor
Bloomberg.
Michael Bloomberg Arick Wierson adviser
Adviser Arick Wierson (right) with Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2006
In 2018, Wierson joined Bolsonaros presidential campaign, devoting himself
to softening the image of the Brazilian demagogue who pledged to imprison or
exile leftist rivals and said in a newspaper interview that a congresswoman
was not worth raping; she is very ugly.
Since coming to power with the help of Bloombergs former chief media
adviser, Bolsonaro has waged a full frontal assault on Brazils political
system. He has signaled his real agenda by openly praising Chiles murderous
dictator Augusto Pinochet and taunting the United Nations human rights chief
over her fathers torture at the hands of his military junta.
A critic on Twitter asked Wierson, how hard is it for you to sleep at night
knowing you took money to make a fascist like Bolsonaro more likeable on a
scale of every night i stare into a terrifying void of my own making unable
to rest to i have no soul and sleep like a baby?'
The Bloomberg surrogate replied succinctly, I sleep just fine. thanks for
asking.
hobo bindle guy
@hobobindleguy
· Feb 19, 2020
Replying to @ArickWierson
Arick, big fan! Quick question: how hard is it for you to sleep at night
knowing you took money to make a fascist like Bolsonaro more "likeable" on a
scale of "every night i stare into a terrifying void of my own making unable
to rest" to "i have no soul and sleep like a baby?"
Arick Wierson
@ArickWierson
I sleep just fine. thanks for asking.
1
3:16 PM - Feb 19, 2020
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Arick Wierson promoting Michael Bloomberg on CNN
Although Wierson no longer appears to have an official position in the
Bloomberg campaign, he is aggressively promoting him and has become a
prominent advocate for the billionaire candidate in corporate media.
In his media appearances and on his social media accounts, Wierson has
vigorously attacked self-described socialist Senator Bernie Sanders, the
most popular presidential candidate in the Democratic primary.
On both Twitter and Facebook, Wierson posts nonstop pro-Bloomberg
propaganda. He openly fantasizes about a brokered convention, in which the
DNC hands the nomination to the oligarch. A banner on his Facebook profile
reads, Im with Mike Bloomberg 2020.
Wierson has found a reliable platform to defend Bloombergs candidacy on
corporate cable news media. Back in November 2019, he made the early case
for the billionaire running for president in a CNN op-ed titled Michael
Bloomberg is the antidote to Donald Trump. The piece celebrated his serene
disposition and courage and declared that he can resurrect Americas
standing in the world.
Then on February 14, Wierson published another column for CNN promoting
Bloomberg as the ideal standard bearer for the party in 2020, representing
Democrats best chance for taking back the White House from Trump.
Four days later, Wierson was invited on CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin,
where he proclaimed that Michael Bloomberg represents the Democratic
Partys best chance to take on Donald Trump in 2020.
Wierson portrayed the Democratic primary as a battle between the billionaire
and the self-declared democratic socialist. As far as Im concerned, its a
two-person race: its Bernie Sanders and Mike Bloomberg, he said.
Arick Wierson Bloomberg CNN Bolsonaro
CNN interview with former Michael Bloomberg chief media adviser Arick
Wierson, who also did PR for Jair Bolsonaro
Arick Wierson doing PR for Jair Bolsonaros campaign
In his CNN appearances, Arick Wierson advised the billionaire to avoid the
presidential debates, because Bloomberg is not exactly a warm and fuzzy
guy, he conceded, and the chances of him coming off as dry, lacking
empathy, and somewhat mechanical loom large.
This advice echoes similar counsel Wierson gave to Jair Bolsonaro during his
presidential campaign. The former Bloomberg adviser successfully convinced
the far-right Brazilian leader to skip the final debate.
Wiersons role on the Bolsonaro campaign was trumpeted by Bloomberg Media,
the billionaire candidates personal media empire. In an October 2018 puff
piece titled Bolsonaros Message on Love and Peace Tested in Brazil Media,
Bloomberg.com credited Wierson with helping to soften the demagogues
personality with a heartwarming ad about loving one another and combating
hate.
Wierson tweeted out a link to the article at the time, noting that he and
his colleagues at the @jairbolsonaro campaign will be testing some novel tv
strategies over next three weeks.
Arick Wierson
@ArickWierson
@jairbolsonaro campaign will be testing some novel tv strategies over next
three weeks.#elesim #inovação https://lnkd.in/etE_K32 ;
Bolsonaro's Message on Love and Peace Tested in Brazil Media
A street preacher climbs onto a crowded city bus in Brazil and starts
rattling off questions in rapid-fire fashion to the sleepy commuters around
him: Why do Brazilians no longer say good morning to...
bloomberg.com
5:22 PM - Oct 9, 2018
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Wierson heaped praise on the far-right presidential candidate, writing on
social media that Bolsonaro is going to clarify a lot in the Manifesto.
Brazil will be able to sleep in peace. He even complained that Brazilian
journalists were treating Bolsonaro unfairly while the far-right president
has gone on to threaten media outlets that exposed his dirty secrets,
particularly his links to the assassination of socialist feminist activist
Marielle Franco.
Michael Bloomberg Sergio Moro Bolsonaro Brazil
Michael Bloomberg with Jair Bolsonaros Justice Minister Sergio Moro at the
Brazilian American Chamber of Commerces 2018 gala
Michael Bloomberg rubs elbows with Bolsonaro allies as his media empire
defends the demagogue
Michael Bloomberg himself has rubbed elbows with Bolsonaro henchmen like
Sergio Moro, a mastermind of the political coup against Brazils left-wing
Workers Party government and the jailing of its leader.
In 2018, the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce held an opulent gala
dinner at which the powerful lobby group gave its top award to both Moro and
Bloomberg.
As a senior judge with extensive ties to the US government, Moro oversaw a
Washington-backed supposed anti-corruption operation, known as Lava Jato,
which was used to orchestrate a soft coup against Brazils democratically
elected President Dilma Rousseff and then imprison Lula da Silva, by far the
most popular candidate in Brazils 2018 presidential election.
After conspiring with Bolsonaro allies to bring the far-right demagogue to
power, Moro was rewarded with a promotion to justice minister. Bolsonaro and
Moro immediately proceeded to visit CIA headquarters.
In 2019, the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce honored Bolsonaro,
selling every one of the $30,000-per-table tickets to its gala. Bolsonaro
ended up not attending, however, after LGBTQ activists pressured corporate
sponsors to withdraw their support, citing the extremist Brazilian leaders
raging homophobia. (When a journalist asked Bolsonaro about investigations
into his sons alleged corruption in December, the far-right president
lashed out: You have a terribly homosexual face, he barked at the
reporter.)
The links between the Bloomberg camp and Bolsonaros allies also reflect the
role the billionaires own media network has played in shaping both leaders
images.
When leaked recordings exposed how Moro blatantly politicized Lava Jato with
the express intention to oust the Workers Party government, Bloombergs
news agency published columns defending the supposed anti-corruption
operation.
Bloomberg Businessweek also honored Moro in 2016 by dubbing him number 10 in
its list of the 50 most influential people of the year.
Many Bloomberg columnists sang the praises of Bolsonaro, celebrating him as
the pro-business candidate. Among them was Admiral James Stavridis, a
former commander of NATO and Bloomberg columnist, who proclaimed that the
rise of Brazils Bolsonaro Completes a U.S. Sweep of South America.
The caption on the featured image did away with any pretense of subtlety:
Yankee come back.
Bloomberg Brazil Bolsonaro US sweep South America
Arick Wierson writes op-ed promoting Bolsonaro without disclosing adviser
role
Arick Wierson has charted an unorthodox career path. During Bolsonaros
presidential campaign, he frequently appeared in Brazilian media outlets,
speaking Portuguese, where he was identified as the political strategist of
Michael Bloomberg. He has even given interviews in Portuguese to Angolan
state television.
Wierson writes regular columns for several websites, including Observer, the
publication previously known as The New York Observer, which was run by
Jared Kushner until his father-in-law Donald Trump was elected president in
2016, at which point Kushner closed down the print newspaper and transferred
ownership to his family to assume duties as a White House senior adviser.
Many of Wiersons Observer columns appear to be sponsored content for
companies such as Great Clips, Anytime Fitness, Sezzle, and Revel.
Wiersons political punditry reads like an extension of his consulting work.
In an article in Observer in October 2018, on the eve of Brazils election,
Wierson downplayed Bolsonaros similarities to Trump.
Despite many attempts by the media to label Trump and Bolsonaro as twins
separated at birth, the two men are as different as they are similar,
Wierson wrote. He portrayed the Brazilian demagogue as a hard-working
military veteran from a modest background.
Left undisclosed was Wiersons work as a top adviser to Bolsonaro.
The only conflict of interest revealed in the article came at the end, with
the following note: Full Disclosure: Arick Wierson is a minority
shareholder in a Brazilian political consultancy, TZU, quoted in this
article.
In other words, Wierson quoted a firm he partially owns to bolster his own
argument.
The consultant closed by predicting a new golden age of U.S Brazilian
relations, which I believe will not only help Brazils economy get back on
track, but strengthen our mutual security concerns.
To forge that unshakeable bond with the junta-happy Brazilian leader,
Wierson clearly sees his other former boss, Bloomberg, as the perfect
candidate.
Ben Norton
Ben Norton is a journalist, writer, and filmmaker. He is the assistant
editor of The Grayzone, and the producer of the Moderate Rebels podcast,
which he co-hosts with editor Max Blumenthal. His website is BenNorton.com
and he tweets at @BenjaminNorton.
bennorton.com
