Bolsonaro denies ‘having asked Joe Biden for re-election help’

Bloomberg

Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro denied having requested his US counterpart Joe Biden for help in his re-election bid during a private meeting they had on the sidelines of a regional summit last week.
“There’s no such a thing,” Bolsonaro told a local radio on Monday when asked whether he had asked for Biden’s help. “It’s speculation; we talked about several topics.”
During their first bilateral meeting, Bolsonaro portrayed the front-runner in this year’s election, leftist former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, as a danger to US interests in the country, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Biden, following Bolsonaro’s request for help, moved to change the subject of the conversation, one of the people said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation.
Bolsonaro said during the radio interview that what was discussed behind closed doors is private and won’t be disclosed by him or his foreign minister, Carlos Franca.
The almost hour-long meeting took place mostly in private during the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles. Bolsonaro told reporters afterward that he and Biden “talked superficially” about the election, describing the encounter as “sensational.” In public comments at the start of their meeting, Biden said that Brazil has a vibrant, inclusive democracy and strong electoral institutions.