Tomi Lahren, a conservative political commentator, was ridiculed online for forgetting Puerto Rico is part of the United States while criticizing Bad Bunny as the Super Bowl halftime show performer.
On the September 30 episode of her podcast, Tomi Lahren is Fearless, Lahren complained about the NFL choosing Bad Bunny and asked her guest, liberal commentator Krystal Ball, to weigh in.
“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.”
Lahren, 33, quickly interjected, claiming Bad Bunny, a Puerto Rican musician, was “not an American artist.”
“He’s Puerto Rican. That’s part of America dear,” Ball responded.
Lahren glossed over her mistake with a short “yeah” and continued to complain about Bad Bunny, criticizing the artist for speaking out against aggressive immigration raids.
But the clip of Lahren appearing to forget Puerto Rico was part of the U.S. went viral on social media.
“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.
Puerto Rico is its own country, but it is also a territory of the U.S., meaning those born in Puerto Rico receive U.S. citizenship as well. However, Puerto Ricans do not pay federal income tax and cannot vote in federal elections.
Lahren, and many other MAGA-aligned conservatives, have made it clear they’re upset with the NFL’s choice to let Bad Bunny, real name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, be the halftime performer.
Bad Bunny, one of the world’s most popular artists, primarily sings and raps in Spanish, which Lahren has taken particular issue with, believing it isolates the traditional English-speaking audience.
That comes at a tense moment for Spanish-speakers in the U.S., when ICE agents are permitted to target individuals who do not speak English while conducting 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.
