Former President Barack Obama is urging Democrats to channel the spirit of Bad Bunny’s halftime show in the fight against MAGA.
The 64-year-old was speaking to liberal podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen when he lauded the unifying message of the Puerto Rican star’s show, which celebrated community and togetherness in the face of vitriol.
“The other side does the mean, angry, exclusive us-them, you know, divisive politics. That’s their home court,” Obama said.
“Our court is coming together… Look, you know, a great example, [it] wasn’t political: Bad Bunny’s halftime show.”
“It was smart because it wasn’t preaching, it was showing, it was demonstrating and displaying: ‘This is what a community is.’ And people who did not speak Spanish and have never been to Puerto Rico, they saw that elderly woman serving a drink and the kids dancing with their grandmas and it was intergenerational,” he said.
“And it was a reminder of what Dr. King called ‘The Beloved Community’ can look like, which is not perfect and it’s messy sometimes. And, you know, I guarantee you not all those lyrics were probably politically correct, and if you translated them… people are complicated. But there was a sense of, all right, there’s room for everybody here.
“And that I think is where we win.”
The former president noted that he’d seen that same energy on display in Minnesota, where ICE’s deportation crackdown led to mass protests, clashes with federal agents, and the deaths of two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Obama said he had been shown “a clip of this street band that was performing every night, after all these activities had been taking place and protests, etcetera. And they were just out there and they were playing music.”
“And, people were celebrating what they had accomplished. And, it was an embodiment of the values that make us care about other people. And, that I think is a spirit that when Democrats tap into that spirit, then we win.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Obama said he believes aliens are “real, but I haven’t seen them,” and addressed a racist video shared by Trump on social media, depicting the faces of him and his wife Michelle Obama superimposed onto the bodies of apes.
Obama did not mention Trump, 79, by name but said that “decorum” and “respect for... office” had been lost by officials.
On his travels around the country, he said, he meets people who “still believe in decency, courtesy, kindness.” But on the flip side, he warned, “There’s this sort of clown show that’s happening in social media and on television.”
“And what is true is that there doesn’t seem to be any shame about this among people who used to feel like you had to have some sort of decorum and a sense of propriety and respect for the office, right?
“That’s been lost.”
Trump initially said he hadn’t seen the full racist clip, then blamed it on a staffer and refused to apologize.
The video has now been deleted.
