Dilma Rousseff calls Brazilian Senate vote 'coup
07:43:00
"It's a coup," Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said Thursday in her first public remarks since senators voted to begin an impeachment trial against her. "My government has been the objective of sabotage."
Rousseff called the impeachment process against her a "farce."
"This process is a fragile process. It's not consistent," she said. "It's unjust and started against a person that's honest and not guilty. It's a brutality that could be committed against any citizen. ... I have made mistakes, but I have not committed any crimes. I am being judged unjustly, because I have followed the law to the letter."
Dilma Rousseff is about to be out of a job -- at least temporarily.
An all-night Senate debate in Brazil ended with a decisive result: the country's first female president must step aside while an impeachment trial against her gets underway.
That means Rousseff could be on the sidelines, fighting for her political future, when the Olympics come to Latin America's largest country in August. Vice President Michael Temer will serve as interim president.
Speaking through the night, senators made their cases in a marathon session ahead of the electronic vote. Fifty-five of the 81 members of the upper house voted in favor of the motion early Thursday, with 22 voting against.
"IT'S A COUP," Rousseff wrote on Facebook Thursday morning, posting a quote from the attorney general to back up a claim she has been making for weeks as she mounts an aggressive defense in the court of public opinion.
The past few months have been a roller coaster for the embattled leader, who's accused of breaking budget laws. And while there are some procedural steps we know are coming, given the country's volatile political landscape, what will happen next is anyone's guess.
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