Does the viral video actually show Flávio Bolsonaro crying after his defeat in Brazil's Oct. 25, 2026, presidential election? No, that's not true: Lead Stories established that the video had been posted hours before the official election results were announced. The initial caption said that the scene was filmed three days before the election day and the audio in the clip matched a Oct. 22, 2026, YouTube livestream from Bolsonaro's own channel.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X where it was published by @EdKrassen on Oct. 26, 2026. It opened:
Flavio Bolsonaro crying after losing the election in Brazil. This is going to be Trump after the midterms.
This is what a thumbnail from the video shared in the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @EdKrassen on X.)
On Oct. 25, 2026, Flávio Bolsonaro (archived here), the eldest son of the former president sentenced to 27 years in prison for plotting a coup after losing the 2022 election, lost (archived here), too, to incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who became president for the fourth time (archived here).
Apparently dissatisfied with the outcome, Bolsonaro attempted to challenge the results (archived here), but the viral video from social media did not show his immediate emotional response to the loss.
The footage was published (archived here and here) on the same day, Oct. 25, 2026. It was initially uploaded to Instagram by the Jess Peixoto account. She described herself (archived here) as a "Communication Strategist & Political Analyst".
The caption said that the video showed an event taking place on Oct. 22, 2026, which was three days before the election day. The description continued:
In this video, Flávio Bolsonaro is watching the last electoral program of the campaign. It's a program that talks about people, about love for Brazil, about hope. It talks about our dreams, the desire to turn the page and build, together, a better country. The program ends with everyone praying the Lord's Prayer together...
The post said nothing about the election results or the campaign's response to it.
The caption, however, was edited, and Lead Stories was not able to locate the archived copy of the original post to see what was changed.
Lead Stories contacted Peixoto for comments, but did not receive a response.
Nevertheless, Lead Stories found one of the earliest reposts (archived here) of the video to X, which, unlike Instagram, showed a specific timestamp of the publication:
(Image source: post by @pamcosta21 on X.)
It was not entirely clear what time zone the stamp captured. However, given that the Lead Stories' journalist is based in New York is based in New York and Brazil's capital, the city of Brasília, is only one hour ahead of the EST zone, the timestamp clearly placed the upload to the first half of the 2026 election day in Brazil.
According to the Brazilian Senate website (archived here), the race was called much later that day. The announcement reads:
Lula was declared re-elected by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) at 9:08 PM, with 97.69% of the vote count completed.
That was consistent with the first reports about the election outcome in English-language outlets. For example, the New York Times did not say anything about it until 8:17 PM EST, or 9:17 PM Brasilia's time, the newspaper's website (archived here) shows:
(Image source: the New York Times.)
Using WhisperAI, which is an AI-powered transcribing tool, Lead Stories analyzed the sound from the clip in question.
Here are the lines that were audible:
Venha o nosso vosso Reino, seja feita a vossa vontade, assim na terra como no céu. O pão nosso de cada dia nos dai hoje; e perdoai as nossas dívidas, assim como nós perdoamos a quem nos tem ofendido. E não nos deixeis cair em tentação, mas livrai-nos do mal. Amém.
A esperança nos move, a fé nos une.
A fé nos une.
A gente agradece muito a nossa ação.
As translated by the same tool, it meant:
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Hope moves us, faith unites us.
Faith unites us.
We are very grateful for our action.
As seen in the transcript above, the sound from the video had zero indication that Flávio Bolsonaro's emotional response was prompted specifically by the announcement of the election results.
According to a report (archived here) by Metropoles (archived here), a Brasília-based Brazilian online news outlet, on Oct. 22, 2026, both then-candidates did not have any scheduled public events, as they were preparing for the presidential debates taking place the next day.
What that report said about Bolsonaro's activities, however, was that he watched "Traditional Thursday Live Stream" on the TV Celular Flávio Bolsonaro YouTube channel (archived here) at 7 pm local time.
Lead Stories was able to find the fragment heard in the video: It begins at the 4:16 mark in this Oct. 22, 2026, upload (archived here). This independently confirmed the date when the scene was filmed.
