WWE steel-cage match or Sao Paulo mayoral debate? It was hard to tell over the weekend when one Brazilian candidate attacked another with a chair as the latter was at the podium, leading to a hospital visit for the attackee. The AP and Washington Post report that Pablo Marcal—a right-winger and social media influencer who's currently polling third behind the incumbent mayor and a leftist rival—was verbally taking on his five opponents during the TV Cultura debate on Sunday night when he started needling Jose Luiz Datena, a journalist and TV presenter who once had a sexual harassment case brought against him (the accuser eventually retracted her claims).
When Datena asked Marcal to retract his own remarks about the case, Marcal called his competitor "all bark and no bite" and taunted him, noting, "You once came over to me during a debate to give me a slap, but you're not even man enough to do that." That's when Datena apparently decided to prove his manhood, rushing up to the podium with a metal chair and clocking Marcal on his side (watch here). The broadcast cut first to the shocked mediator, then went to commercial break, per News.com.au. "Astonishingly ... the debate continued" later on without Marcal, notes the outlet.
Marcal was whisked to a local hospital, and his aides say one of his ribs was broken in the attack. Emergency officials say he also suffered a dislocated finger. After the assault, Marcal posted three photos on his Instagram: one showing a defiant Donald Trump after an assassination attempt on the former US president in July; one showing former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who was stabbed just weeks before being elected in 2018; and one showing Marcal himself getting slammed with the chair. "Why all this hate?" Marcal captioned his post. As for Datena, who's hasn't yet been charged, he told reporters after the incident that "unfortunately, I lost my head," per the AP. "But just as I cry ... this was a human reaction that I couldn't contain." (More Brazil stories.)