Summary
- Tomi Lahren criticized Bad Bunny as a Super Bowl performer.
- She incorrectly said Puerto Rico is not part of the US.
- Guest Krystal Ball corrected her, saying Puerto Rico is America.
Tomi Lahren expressed her displeasure with the NFL's selection of Bad Bunny in the September 30 episode of her podcast, Tomi Lahren is Fearless. She also asked her liberal pundit guest, Krystal Ball, for her opinion.
“I’m not that knowledgeable about him, but it seems fine, and I don’t know why it’s a big deal,”
Ball said.
“Seems like a great American artist, so sure.”
“He’s Puerto Rican. That’s part of America dear,”
Ball responded.
Lahren, 33, swiftly stepped in and asserted that Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny was "not an American artist."
Lahren used a brief "yeah" to cover up her error and went on to blame Bad Bunny for criticizing the musician for opposing violent immigration raids.
On social media, however, the video of Lahren seemingly forgetting that Puerto Rico was a part of the United States went viral.
“Tomi, I’m not going to sugarcoat this. You got humiliated,”
a commenter named Emma wrote on the YouTube video of the podcast episode.
Another YouTube commentator wrote,
“I only saw a clip of the Bad Bunny section on [Facebook] and I thought they cut the video to make Tomi look like an idiot. When I went to the actual video she uploaded you realize that she really didn’t know Puerto Ricans are US Citizens. I give her props for not editing this section out. She really is a dumb***.”
“The most alarming thing isn’t her stupidity but how coded her answer back was. Just a sarcastic “yeah.” You can tell she 100% thinks Puerto Ricans or anyone that speaks only Spanish isn’t American regardless of where they came from,”
a YouTube commenter who identified as Puerto Rican wrote.
Although Puerto Rico is a separate nation, it is also a U.S. territory, so people born there are also granted U.S. citizenship. Puerto Ricans, however, are not eligible to vote in federal elections and are not required to pay federal income tax.
Lahren and numerous other conservatives who identify as MAGA have expressed their displeasure with the NFL's decision to allow Bad Bunny, whose true name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, to sing during halftime.
One of the most well-known musicians in the world, Bad Bunny, sings and raps mostly in Spanish, which Lahren has taken particular problem with because he feels it alienates the conventional English-speaking audience.
That coincides with a tense time for Spanish-speaking Americans as ICE officials are allowed to target non-English speaking people during immigration raids.
Conservatives have claimed Bad Bunny is a “woke” choice for the halftime show because he has expressed negative views of ICE raids. In an interview with i-D, Bad Bunny stated that he did not tour in the U.S. out of fear that ICE raids could target concertgoers.
How have other commentators reacted to Lahren's remark?
On social media platforms such as YouTube and Twitter, users made comments ridiculing Lahren for being 'humiliated' and pointed out her lack of awareness that Puerto Ricans are born American citizens.
Commentators from the left framed her interaction with Krystal Ball as something that demonstrates her political and cultural ignorance.
Although some conservative commentators had criticized Bad Bunny for his political views and the fact that he was a Spanish-language performer, they too chastised Lahren for her error and stated that it was bad for the conservative cause.
The clip also produced a viral meme and TikTok video questioning Lahren's gaffe and the backlash to Bad Bunny's selection.