Maria and Julio are joined by Jamil Smith, essayist for the Los Angeles Times, and Sabrina Rodríguez, national political reporter for The Washington Post, to discuss the storming of Brazil’s Congress by far-right Bolsonaro supporters, and the similarities to the January 6th Capitol attack in the United States. They also get into Biden’s brief visit to the southern border city of El Paso and the latest in Congress with Kevin McCarthy’s fight for House speakership.

ITT Staff Picks:

• Yascha Mounk discusses Brazil’s “January 6 moment,” unpacking the similarities between the two events and what it means for Brazil’s democracy, in this article for The Atlantic.

• Suzanne Gamboa provides a timeline depicting Congress’ failure to reform immigration for the past two decades, in this article for NBC News.

• “If far-right lawmakers in the GOP follow through on their promises to hold up pivotal spending and debt ceiling legislation, Republicans may well have to rely on Democrats’ help to get any bills across the finish line — a dynamic Democrats could capitalize on,” writes Li Zhou in this article for Vox.

Photo credit: AP Photo/Eraldo Peres

This episode was mixed by Leah Shaw Dameron.