Candace Owens is breaking from her MAGA peers to declare that her side “lost the Super Bowl narrative,” and call Bad Bunny’s performance “objectively successful.”
The MAGA influencer and conspiracy theorist shared her views on X and YouTube, telling fellow conservatives to wake up to the reality of this year’s Super Bowl.
“Conservatives are now fully deluding themselves and paying influencers to invert reality,” she wrote on X, going on to list her views on various issues, all of which seem to contradict the widespread stance held by the country’s MAGA population.
“Reality: you lost the Super Bowl narrative. Bad Bunny had an objectively successful performance, whether you like it or not,” she said.
Prior to Sunday night’s showdown, Owens said she wasn’t a fan of Bad Bunny’s show, nor would she be viewing TPUSA’s alternative offer.
“On the one hand, we have a half-time show presented without a word of English spoken,” she wrote. “On the other hand we have an organization that scammed its views by paying platform advertisers, followed by influencers to pretend they broke records.”
And while Republicans told people to turn off their TVs, it turns out “nobody turned their TV off.”
This year’s Super Bowl broke records, becoming the most-watched of all time. Over 135 million viewers tuned in to the halftime show, while TPUSA’s program drew just over six million live viewers on Sunday night.
In a longer rant posted to her YouTube channel, where Owens has over 5 million subscribers, she unpacked the success of Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show, while roasting Turning Point USA’s far less successful counterprogramming.
“So, Bad Bunny, objectively, whether you like him or not, he had a successful Super Bowl halftime performance in terms of the metrics,” she said. “This means that the—I would say unnecessary—Super Bowl political lines that were drawn by Turning Point USA was not successful in terms of drawing people away from the NFL’s viewership."
The conservative organization, founded by the late Charlie Kirk, decided to host an alternative “All American Halftime Show,” headlined by Kid Rock and other country singers, including Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice, and Gabby Barrett.
Owens opened her podcast by saying that “if you did not enjoy” TPUSA’s show, the organization’s natural conclusion will be, “you don’t love Jesus.”
“That’s the new Turning Point talking point,” she said, clearly unimpressed.
Owens and Erika Kirk, Charlie’s widow and the current CEO of TPUSA, have been embroiled in a months-long battle. Since Charlie Kirk was assassinated in September, Owens peddled a slew of conspiracy theories about the far-right activist’s death, going as far as to say his organization played a hand in his killing.
In her discussion about the Super Bowl, Owens went on to dissect the “conservative stereotype” of trashing the show’s headliners, noting the outrage from the right when it came to Rihanna’s 2023 performance, for example. Owens said she “notoriously defended” Rihanna after conservatives labelled the superstar’s performance attire as “satanic.”
The right-wing influencer, notorious for touting conspiracies, then went on a tangent about her love for Spanish music, the fact that she actually doesn’t know any Bad Bunny songs, and that the only issue with the reggaeton artist’s performance this year was that it was all in Spanish.
But, she said, this isn’t Bad Bunny’s fault. “He was booked,” she said, laughing. “Who are you actually upset with for booking his performance? But he didn’t book himself.”
TPUSA’s show gave Owens ample material to work with. She mocked the show for allegedly being pre-recorded weeks ago. She also didn’t buy that six million concurrent viewers tuned in to watch the MAGA show, saying the numbers are “made up” and “impossible.”
Owen’s comments come as the MAGA camp continues to split over Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance. While conservatives have largely fallen into panic after the performance, centered on Latino culture and joy, many MAGA-friendly figures have defended the show and its headliner.
