A Trump loyalist is being called an “absolute joke” by conservatives for his call to have the FCC investigate Bad Bunny’s halftime show.
Florida Rep. Randy Fine has accused Bad Bunny of using his halftime show to encourage children to use cocaine and subjecting America to “grotesque, leftist garbage.” The New York Post first reported the story, and Fine amplified his outrage and request for a Federal Communications Commission investigation on X Tuesday.
“BREAKING: I just sent a letter to @BrendanCarrFCC calling for a full and immediate investigation into the Bad Bunny Halftime Show,” Fine, 51, wrote. “In America, our laws are not suggestions, and no matter what foreign language you speak, you must comply.”
Fine’s call for an FCC investigation into the performance wasn’t met with full-throated conservative support. In fact, multiple conservatives criticized Fine for his stunt.
One X user, Bonchie, a contributor for the right-wing publication RedState, slammed Fine’s call for an FCC investigation.
“This Republican majority is an absolute joke. Utterly useless and obsessed with irrelevancy,” he wrote.
Kimberly Ross, a columnist for the right-wing Washington Examiner, said, “This is dumb conservatism.”
“This man is one of the most desperately grasping frauds in the GOP caucus, and that really says something considering that he shares a state with Cory Mills,” wrote Jeff Blehar, a staff writer at the conservative National Review.
Fine’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Conservatives have been fighting a culture war over Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl LX halftime show for months. Ever since the 31-year-old Puerto Rican star was announced as the big game’s halftime entertainment, the MAGA movement has bashed the selection as divisive and un-American, as Bad Bunny is critical of ICE and performs almost exclusively in Spanish.
Fine, a MAGA diehard who has introduced legislation to annex Greenland, joined a swath of Republicans voicing outrage and demanding consequences for the performance.
His allegation that Bad Bunny encouraged cocaine use comes from the singer’s performance of the song “NUEVAYoL,” which features the line “El perico es blanco.” The lyric literally translates to “The parakeet is white,” but is widely understood to be a reference to cocaine.
Despite the political frenzy surrounding his performance, Bad Bunny, real name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, delivered a mostly drama-free show filled with wholesome moments, such as a couple’s actual wedding and a young boy receiving one of Bad Bunny’s Grammy awards from the 31-year-old performer.
That hasn’t stopped other Republicans from kicking up a stink over the performance. Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles, another far-right Republican, wrote a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee about how scandalized he was seeing “explicit displays of gay sexual acts” during the show (the performance featured a brief shot of two men dancing together).
Some right-wing pundits, including Megyn Kelly and Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade, had similar meltdowns. Kelly cried that the show was a “middle finger to America,” while Kilmeade whined that the performance was an affront to the country’s 250th anniversary.
Conservative activist organization Turning Point USA staged a much-hyped alternative halftime show, which turned out to be a pre-recorded performance from MAGA darling Kid Rock.
The performance earned one-twentieth of the viewership that Bad Bunny’s netted.
The vast discrepancy in quality and viewership between the two shows earned the MAGA movement widespread mockery, and even some conservatives have admitted the vocal outrage over the Super Bowl halftime show isn’t a good look.
Candace Owens, a far-right firebrand, urged the right to realize it “lost the Super Bowl narrative.”
“Bad Bunny had an objectively successful performance, whether you like it or not,” she posted on X.
