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CNN Special Reports
Bad Bunny & The Halftime Show: Rhythms Of Resistance. Aired 10- 11p ET
Aired February 07, 2026 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[22:00:00]
ROY WOOD JR., CNN HOST: A few more stories we're watching. King Charles runs into his brother at the family reunion. Olympian realizes he never learned the second part of the trick.
I'm Roy Wood Jr., and I'll see you next week for another episode of Have I Got News For You. And there are still seats available for the Turning Point USA Halftime Show. Good night.
MJ ACOSTA-RUIZ, NFL SIDELINE REPORTER: Bad Bunny's performance at the Super Bowl Halftime Show feels like a tipping point in what it means to be an immigrant in this country, what it means to be an American in this country.
DR. PETRA RIVERA-RIDEAU, PROFESSOR & CO-AUTHOR, P FKN R: Bad Bunny performing in the Super Bowl Halftime Show means everything.
REP. NYDIA VELAZQUEZ (D-NY): Bad Bunny bring all of us to that stage.
BAD BUNNY, PUERTO RICAN RAPPER AND SINGER: I born this island that there's so much musical culture. There's a lot of influence. And it's just on my blood, like in my mind, in my soul. (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE).
RAINAO, SINGER-SONGWRITER (through translation): I don't even know what to say, my goodness. Benuto, we love you.
RIVERA-RIDEAU: When Latin American immigrants are seen as perpetually foreign and people who maybe don't belong here, to have that stage dedicated to someone who represents that community is profoundly important.
BBUNNY: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE).
LYDIA SHAFFER, CONSERVATIVE INFLUENCER: Why does he have to be the main performer? This is an American show. So it doesn't really make sense to me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: America has a strong patriotic culture. And the Super Bowl is such a pinnacle of American culture coming together.
SHAFFER: I felt like it was a slap in the face, a middle finger to everyday Americans.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So don't come and disrespect America.
BRADLEY DEVLIN, POLITICS EDITOR, THE DAILY SIGNAL: At the center of the controversy of Bad Bunny headlining the Super Bowl halftime show are questions of American identity, American tradition, and not only what America has been for the first 250 years, but what America might look like for the next 250 years.
CARMEN YULIN CRUZ, FORMER MAYOR, SAN JUAN PR: Bad Bunny is a phenomenon, a worldwide phenomenon.
RIVERA-RIDEAU: I think it's hard to overstate how massive Bad Bunny is as a pop star. It's just the truth.
ACOSTA-RUIZ: He took home album of the year, which became the first entirely Spanish project to do so. He and other stars used the stage to speak out as well against the President's immigration enforcement program.
NEGRON-MUNTANER: Bad Bunny is the most influential musical figure in the world right now. From the beginning, Bad Bunny has chosen to sing in Spanish. And I like with Cardi B is the song that introduces him to an Anglophone audience.
RIVERA-RIDEAU: The song is an interesting crossover moment. As opposed to making the song wholly in English, it is a very bilingual song. And it actually hits number one on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, which is really critical.
BAD BUNNY (through translation): Such a great opportunity for us to expand our market and become known in other places far away.
ACOSTA-RUIZ: Bad Bunny is the most extreme artist in the world. That is globally.
RIVERA-RIDEAU: I think he rivals someone like Beyonce or Taylor Swift in terms of popularity. He has many songs that have reached part of the Spotify Billions Club, including "Baile Inolvidable," which is the only salsa song to have reached that level.
NEGRON-MUNTANER: Another reason that Bad Bunny appeals to a lot of people is that he feels that if you insist on who you are and recognize and cultivate what you value, that you can indeed be successful. Also, something that resonates a lot with young people is that he has fluid gender identity.
[22:04:59]
RIVERA-RIDEAU: He has long expressed allyship with the LGBTQ community. He sells out concerts all over the globe.
NEGRON-MUNTANER: So I would say that if you are hiding under a rock and have not heard about Bunny, you know, he is considered an influential and towering figure right now.
RIVERA-RIDEAU: Bad Bunny's name is Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio. A lot of fans know him just as Benito. He was born in 1994, raised in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, which is a town about 40 minutes west of San Juan.
NEGRON-MUNTANER: And he has described Vega Baja as a quiet place where people have very tight-knit communities. His mother was a schoolteacher. His father was a truck driver.
EDWIN MARRERO SANTIAGO, BENITO'S SCHOOLMATE (through translation): He has mentioned many times that his love for music actually comes from his mother, his father from the variety of music that was played in his home. For example, his parents played salsa, merengue, reggaeton.
NEGRON-MUNTANER: By the time he's in his mid-teens, he's already composing music and starting to record.
RIVERA-RIDEAU: He goes to college at the University of Puerto Rico, Arecibo, for a couple of years while he's famously bagging groceries at the Econo grocery store. He grows up in the sort of heyday of reggaeton. And he takes these musical influences and he plays around with them on the computer. And he becomes kind of like a at-home sort of studio rapper-producer.
BAD BUNNY: When I turned 20, I said, I should start to, you know, to take it serious if I want to make it, you know. And that's what I did.
NEGRON-MUNTANER: And in 2016, he uploads his first composition, which is a Latin trap to SoundCloud.
RIVERA-RIDEAU: Latin trap was known for its very sexually explicit lyrics. And so it was not getting a lot of radio play. He puts "Diles" on SoundCloud and it gets him noticed. And so to have it on these streaming platforms sort of helped take the genre to new heights.
BAD BUNNY: Then my life changed when I turned 22.
SANTIAGO (through translation): After "Diles," he became the number one artist in the world, practically.
NEGRON-MUNTANER: He immediately started expanding musically, lyrically, and thematically. One of the most popular songs of Bad Bunny's "Debi Tirar Mas Fotos" album is called "Nuevayol."
RIVERA-RIDEAU: The word is traditionally "Nuevayol." One of the things that Puerto Rican Spanish has been criticized for is making the R sound, sound like an L. The song title is "Nuevayol." And that is an intentional decision to highlight Puerto Rican Spanish. More Puerto Ricans at this point live in the United States than live in Puerto Rico. And New York has been a really central city for Puerto Rican life and culture.
NEGRON-MUNTANER: The music video begins with Bad Bunny, ill-dressed for the cold, walking through snow. And then he gets into a cab and he says --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE).
NEGRON-MUNTANER: -- when is this coldness going to end? A reference to colonialism itself. RIVERA-RIDEAU: It samples the song called "Un Verano" in "Nuevayol" by El Gran Combo, which is one of the most important salsa bands in Puerto Rico.
NEGRON-MUNTANER: One of the figures that appears in "Nuevayol" is Maria Antonia Cay, otherwise known as Tonita. An iconic figure or matriarch of Puerto Rican New York. She has a space there known as Caribbean Social Club.
MARIA ANTONIA "TONITA" CAY, OWNER, CARIBBEAN SOCIAL CLUB (through translation): This place is like a social club for everyone. So everyone feels, as they say, "I feel at home."
NEGRON-MUNTANER: Tonita resonates for Bad Bunny because she's maintaining a Puerto Rican institution in the middle of rapid gentrification.
CAY (through translation): The song says, "A Canita rum at Tonita's house." All Puerto Ricans are proud of him because his music is heard in all countries and everyone likes it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): Do you like his music, too?
CAY (through translation): Well.
NEGRON-MUNTANER: Another reason people gravitate towards him has to do with his politics.
[22:10:02]
RIVERA-RIDEAU: Bad Bunny is an artist of resistance and refusal. In his music video for "Nuevayol." At the end, we see him inside the Statue of Liberty with a Puerto Rican flag over it. And this is an image that comes from 1977 when Puerto Rican activists put the Puerto Rican flag on the Statue of Liberty to protest the U.S. colonialism in Puerto Rico.
VELAZQUEZ: We have been told for years that in order to succeed, we need to soften our actions and meet people where they are. And Bad Bunny, he didn't move toward the world. He made the world move toward us.
RIVERA-RIDEAU: We have these blips in American pop culture, like "La Bamba," like "La Macarena," like "Despacito," where you have one song that's in Spanish that hits number one and stays on the charts for a little while, but then it fizzles out.
NEGRON-MUNTANER: So for instance, you had Desi Arnaz on television playing Cuban music in one of the top rated shows in the nation. Yet after that, you just kind of forget about it. And then you have cycles that continuously do this. So you have Ricky Martin. And all of a sudden, everybody is "Livin' la Vida Loca."
And then it's like everybody forgets about that. So there is a long tradition of Latino and Latin American performers that have felt the need to cross over, and they include Gloria Estefan, Marc Anthony, Shakira, feeling that the only way that they were going to reach a large audience was singing in English, that they had no other option. And what Bad Bunny is proving is that those days are over.
RIVERA-RIDEAU: And I think that I would call an act of refusal, right? The bigger he gets, it feels like the more he doubles down on his Puerto Rican-ness, on his political commitments. Like, I'm not going to do what you expect me to do. I'm going to be myself, and I'm going to kill it.
NEGRON-MUNTANER: Insisting on Spanish, I think it's a political stance.
RIVERA-RIDEAU: He sings specifically in Puerto Rican Spanish. And this is really important because within Spanish, there are linguistic hierarchies.
CRUZ: We were always el patito feo. I don't know, the ugly duckling, I guess. Because we speak Spanish in a very particular way. We speak a little bit of Spanglish.
NEGRON-MUNTANER: And for the purists of Spanish language, that is a denigrated type of Spanish.
CRUZ: Benito has told us, in a way given us permission, to understand that being who we are needs no excuses.
RIVERA-RIDEAU: It's an interesting thing how someone can just be themselves. And that alone is a political statement.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:15:36]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The playoff for the National Professional Championship becomes a grueling test of football strength.
ACOSTA-RUIZ: Football, American football, literally is America's game.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And passes nearly 50 yards.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's very nostalgic to Americans.
DEVLIN: I'll never forget the first time I put on football pads. If you're a nine or 10-year-old kid like I was, you have this giant helmet on this tiny little body.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thirty-two, 29.
COY WIRE, FORMER NFL PLAYER: It was, you know, probably like as wide as my shoulders. But I knew from that age that I wanted to play in the NFL one day.
SHAFFER: High school football, you think back to, you know, Friday Night Lights.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Clear eyes, full hearts. ACOSTA-RUIZ: Friday night in a small town, that high school football game was the only thing that mattered.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is our time now.
ACOSTA-RUIZ: Oh my God, remember the Titans. Hello, Denzel. Perfection is what we're going for. Any given Sunday, the blind side. There are so many shows that really portray what this football Americana sense is here in the United States.
WIRE: It taught me fellowship, brotherhood.
DEVLIN: Conservatives love football because they see football as the best game to show America's values.
ACOSTA-RUIZ: It's dog country football. But the game is growing internationally.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The NFL, back in Europe, but this time in Spain.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In Dublin.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In Brazil.
ACOSTA-RUIZ: It's the bigger audience. It's more tickets sold. There's more butts in seats.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fans in the U.S. are gearing up for the biggest event of the year, and that is, of course, the Super Bowl.
RIVERA-RIDEAU: The Super Bowl, although it's not a national holiday, right, it sort of functions as one.
ACOSTA-RUIZ: You've got Thanksgiving, you have Christmas, and then there's Super Bowl Sunday.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We won. We won at the Super Bowl.
SHAFFER: It is the biggest stage in America. It's multi-generational. I mean, you have young children staying up late to watch it. You have my age, and then you have grandparents. It's bringing people together. Americans, Americans together.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In Los Angeles, the first Super Bowl game puts the Pikers against the Chiefs.
ACOSTA-RUIZ: The halftime show really just started off as, OK, we've got to fill this, what's supposed to be 12 minutes, this 12-minute slot with something.
WIRE: It used to be marching bands, but over time, as you start having these pretty grandiose displays, and this builds and builds and builds, until it's a single headliner running the show.
ISABEL ROSALES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And then as you keep following the timeline, there's moments of disruption. PAULA ZAHN, NEWS ANCHOR: It's a story that certainly has garnered a lot of attention today, and that was the appearance of one of Janet Jackson's breasts during the Super Bowl halftime show.
ROSALES: You had all sorts of people calling in to the FCC complaining. But it became a moment, right?
ACOSTA-RUIZ: Fast forward to 2020, and J. Lo and Shakira were heavily criticized for being over-sexualized or for having children in cages. That show with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg and Mary J. Blige and alleged censorship that was going on. So there's always something that's going to pop off culturally across the zeitgeist. And now --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bad Bunny, the headline of the Super Bowl halftime show.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The first Latino male artist to headline --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A move that signals the NFL isn't shying away from cultural flashpoints.
ACOSTA-RUIZ: So I immediately started calling everyone. I was like, I'm working the Super Bowl, right?
SANTIAGO (through translation): I found out about the Super Bowl on social media. When I saw the video for the first time it was like, wow, I got goosebumps.
SHAFFER: If you are a business that wants to globalize your audience, who better than the biggest star in the world?
ROGER GOODELL, NFL COMMISSIONER: Hello again. It's an important stage for us. I would say that I'm not sure we've ever selected an artist where we didn't have some blowback or criticism.
[22:20:04]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So you tell me whether this is an active middle finger to all of MAGA and the right wing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's a middle finger to what America is all about. You know, I remember watching the Super Bowl last year and seeing Kendrick Lamar perform. It's like TikTok slop and these people coming on with these songs that are vulgar and completely out there.
ACOSTA-RUIZ: There is nothing the NFL does that's by coincidence.
MIKE FLORIO, NFL REPORTER: I give them credit for doing it because they knew there was going to be a political reaction. And at the end of the day, somebody decided, we don't care if there's potential political fallout. We'll deal with it.
DEVLIN: I think people who feel that connection to the American values that those teams put on display every Sunday that they play are really ticked off by it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Football fans typically love America. So I don't know, this just feels pretty idiotic.
DEVLIN: They feel like the league is running away from the people who have supported the sport all their lives. Instead, trying to bring in a predominantly Spanish-speaking artist to make it more attractive to the rest of the world.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thought this was like America's sport.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What a rotten pick, huh?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is woke puke. That's all it is.
RIVERA-RIDEAU: I think much of the backlash has centered around this idea that Bad Bunny is foreign, right?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sure.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's not an American artist, but he's Puerto Rican. That's part of America, dear.
RIVERA-RIDEAU: That he is someone who is not American because he speaks Spanish, because he's Puerto Rican even though he's a U.S. citizen.
NEGRON-MUNTANER: These arguments, they resemble the same complaints that were filed against the Shakira-Jennifer Lopez halftime. We don't want to watch Latinos on that stage being Latinos.
BAD BUNNY: I'm very excited to be doing the Super Bowl and I know that people all around the world who love my music are also happy. (through translation) Especially all the Latinos.
NEGRON-MUNTANER: So when Bad Bunny comes out and says, I am going to go to the Super Bowl and I am going to sing only in Spanish.
BAD BUNNY (through translation): More than a win for me, it's a win for all of us.
NEGRON-MUNTANER: He's very well aware of the impact of those words.
BAD BUNNY: If you didn't understand what I just said, you have four months to learn.
ACOSTA-RUIZ: You're either going to learn a little bit of the language or you're not, but hey, I'm performing no matter what.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is this who you want as your halftime entertainment for an English-speaking American audience? This is the most unitive event in American culture.
CRUZ: There's about 45 million people who speak Spanish only in the United States. If you count bilingual people, it's about 60 million.
NEGRON-MUNTANER: So when you're saying that a Latino performer does not represent American values, you're actually ignoring millions of Americans. VELAZQUEZ: There has been a little controversy and I think that that is good. In order to succeed, you don't have to change who you are.
NEGRON-MUNTANER: Bad Bunny has frequently expressed the importance of being rooted in Puerto Rico as essential to his collaborations with other artists.
ROSALES: He's sticking to the people he knows and that's especially the case with right now, one of the most popular artists in Puerto Rico.
RAINAO (through translation): There is no prettier language than ours when it comes to connecting with our people. And I think that also shows you those bonds of love that exist among artists in our island.
BAD BUNNY: I feel good, I feel comfortable, I feel free, I feel happy in this environment, in this place, with these artists, with these people.
(through translation): My favorite artist from Puerto Rico, RaiNao.
RAINAO (through translation): I think it is a pride, a genuine pride that it will be that way, in our language with our slang with music that represents us with an artist that represent us.
[22:24:50]
NEGRON-MUNTANER: In his music and in his vision, I don't see so much the American dream. I would say the Puerto Rican dream is that the place that you call home stays your home.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
RIVERA-RIDEAU: For a tiny island, Puerto Rico has produced some of the biggest Latin musicians in history.
[22:30:04]
NEGRON-MUNTANER: Bomba and plane are genres that are less known outside of Puerto Rico, but we grew up listening to it. It's like an oral newspaper.
RIVERA-RIDEAU: One thing that brings all these musical traditions together is that they are rooted in community and community building.
ROSALES: Benito is 31, meaning he grew up in the 90s in Puerto Rico.
NEGRON-MUNTANER: At the time that he was growing up, reggaeton was developing. Most of the world heard reggaeton with "La Gasolina," which was the first global hit by Daddy Yankee.
RIVERA-RIDEAU: It's a genre that was innovated by young people. Many of them are from communities that are pretty marginalized.
NEGRON-MUNTANER: Most of the work, apart from being about, you know, sexuality, it was also articulating a critique of society from the perspective of people that were being denied access to resources. In the Puerto Rican tradition, an artist that criticizes colonialism in Puerto Rico is not uncommon. You don't have other mechanisms of representation to be heard and seen.
RIVERA-RIDEAU: Puerto Rico is an island that some people have called the oldest colony. It's colonized by Spain, and then in 1898, the United States takes over.
NEGRON-MUNTANER: Regardless of the way Puerto Ricans might think of their nationality, Puerto Rico is a territory of the U.S.
CRUZ: Well, that is just a euphemism for a colony. We don't have the same rights as other U.S. citizens.
RIVERA-RIDEAU: Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, but if they live on the island of Puerto Rico, they cannot vote for U.S. president. However, Puerto Ricans can be drafted into the U.S. military.
I think one of the things that makes Bad Bunny a really interesting global artist is that the more famous he has become, the more he talks very openly about politics.
RAINAO (through translation): I'll never forget my dad screaming all night. Obviously, due to the wind, the doors and windows were taken away and it was like there were many hours of chaos.
SANTIAGO (through translation): It was an emergency that changed our lives completely.
RAINAO (through translation): Knowing that we didn't have a government capable of facing something so monumental. Knowing that there were people who didn't have their homes prepared to face that.
VELAZQUEZ: The devastation that we went through in Puerto Rico was just beyond any comprehension. Puerto Rico will never be the same.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sorry, maybe I'm too tired. I get a little emotional, but, you know, we're dying here. We truly are dying here. And I keep saying it, SOS, if anyone can hear us, you know, if Mr. Trump can hear us, let's just get it over with and get the ball rolling.
CRUZ: We had been having meetings with FEMA, and they kept telling us that the aid was coming, that the aid was coming. But the aid wasn't coming. And I said, and you're going to have to believe this, these motherfuckers are going to let us die. The lower echelons of the federal government, they wanted to help. They knew how to help. But they were waiting for the higher echelons of government to tell them, go ahead and do it.
President Trump had only been in office since January 20th. So this is his first real testament of who he is. The President of the United States comes to visit Puerto Rico with the First Lady. He stays about four hours.
SANTIAGO (through translation): To see the President of the U.S. arrive in the midst of the emergency, for many at the moment the arrival of the President of the U.S. was announced, it might have been something hopeful.
NEGRON-MUNTANER: When he went to Puerto Rico to assess the damage of Hurricane Maria, he continuously said, not many people died here.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Every death is a horror. But if you look at a real catastrophe like Katrina, and you look at the tremendous hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that died, and you look at what happened here with really a storm that was just totally overpowering. Nobody's ever seen anything like this. And what is your death count as of this moment? Seventeen?
[22:35:05]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sixteen, sir.
TRUMP: Sixteen people certified.
CRUZ: And he starts throwing paper towels at people. And he left, right? Air Force One.
TRUMP: Thank you. Thank you, everybody.
ROSALES: We may never know the exact number of deaths that happened in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria, but the general understanding is that it's in the thousands, perhaps upwards of 3,000, more than what we even saw during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
CRUZ: We're all going to die. That's a fact of life. When you are left to die because of incompetence, that's a travesty. But see, there's a generation after Maria that is less afraid to speak up.
RAINAO (through translation): In moments like that, like Maria, when we were destroyed in many ways, I think simultaneous to that pain, we opened our eyes and understand that we have each other and feel our power.
BAD BUNNY (through translation): Puerto Rico will not be intimidated. Welcome to the generation that refuses to silenced. I love you, Puerto Rico.
RIVERA-RIDEAU: All of these crises together have shaped Bad Bunny's generation. It has been sort of one thing after another in Puerto Rico. And I think that his music really reflects that struggle. When he goes on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon in 2018, this is his first television appearance on U.S. mainstream T.V.
BAD BUNNY: After one year of the hurricane, there's still people without electricity in their homes. More than 3,000 people died and Trump is still in denial. But you know what?
NEGRON-MUNTANER: It's very telling that he chooses the first opportunity that he has to speak to an American audience. And he chooses a song to call attention to the indifference to Puerto Rican life by the U.S. government. It took me about three weeks to reach my parents after Hurricane Maria. I did not know if they were well or not.
And when I finally was able to talk to my father and he picked up the phone, the first thing he said was, Estamos bien. And in that context, it didn't mean you were good or great. What it meant was we survived.
[22:37:48]
RAINAO (through translation): I think that inevitably Puerto Rico, our upbringing, our culture and everything that happens here, even what is difficult to process, even what is hard to swallow is reflected in our work.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAMALA HARRIS, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is an honor to be with you again. And to everyone, Happy Hispanic Heritage Month.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In these final days before Election Day, both campaigns have been focused on turning out the vote from a key voting bloc, Latino voters.
TRUMP: Nobody loves our Latino community and our Puerto Rican community more than I do, nobody.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President-elect Donald J. Trump.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Elect Donald Trump saw historic support from Latino voters this election, despite his anti-immigrant rhetoric and campaign promises on mass deportation.
NEGRON-MUNTANER: People are hurting in the United States. The American dream is really becoming impossible for a lot of people.
TONY ARIAS, RADIO HOST: I see a lot of young people voting for Trump because they're thinking about the economy.
NEGRON-MUNTANER: The narrative was, your problems are the result of too many illegal immigrants. People were looking for someone that they perceive was going to be decisive in changing things.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why would Latinos vote for Donald Trump if that means he might deport Abuela?
NEGRON-MUNTANER: They thought they were not illegal immigrants. Therefore, a crackdown on illegal immigrants would not affect them.
VELAZQUEZ: Latinos didn't see it for ICE to be turned into a military force.
KRISTI NOEM, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: The individuals that we are going after are those that are violent criminals, those that are breaking our laws.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tensions have been escalating around the country.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Federal agents have arrested roughly 220,000 people.
ACOSTA-RUIZ: People being profiled, stopped at work, being picked up just randomly off the street, no due process, being held in detention centers without access to representation, legal counsel, or even their families. There's been a lot of profiling throughout the ICE raids.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is where I belong. This is my home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ma'am, you can belong here, but where were you born?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I'm not going to --
VELAZQUEZ: They will target Latinos just by the mere fact that they're speaking the Spanish language.
[22:45:00]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why are you asking for my paperwork?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because of your accent.
ACOSTA-RUIZ: So it's almost -- the language is being weaponized.
ROSALES: And eventually, the actions from Border Patrol and ICE And eventually, the actions from Border Patrol and ICE led to clashes between protesters and federal agents.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Trump posted a warning, quote, Chicago about to find out why it's called the Department of War.
ACOSTA-RUIZ: It's been a very dark and very heavy time for the Latino community, and there's a lot of tension, a lot of fear.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ICE announcing the arrest of almost a thousand people in locations across the United States, including in Puerto Rico.
RIVERA-RIDEAU: There have also been ICE raids in Puerto Rico, particularly targeting Dominican communities.
ROSALES: Last year, Bad Bunny posted on his Instagram stories an active raid that was happening in Puerto Rico.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): As we said, they are in these cars, RAV-4s. They are driving in RAV-4s. They're here in Pontezuela, sons of -- instead of leaving people alone and working here.
DEVLIN: Over the past year, Bad Bunny has been very outspoken about the Trump immigration agenda.
ROSALES: In the music video for "Nuevayol," Bad Bunny also calls out Donald Trump in a really unusual way.
NEGRON-MUNTANER: You have four young men listening to the radio.
TRUMP: I want to apologize to the immigrants in America.
ROSALES: This voice comes out. It's super familiar because it's mimicking Donald Trump.
TRUMP: I want to say that this country is nothing without the immigrants.
ROSALES: It's sending a message of apology to immigrants everywhere.
TRUMP: This country is nothing without Mexicans, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Colombians, Venezuelans, Cubans.
ROSALES: It's turning anti-immigrant rhetoric right on its head into a pro-immigrant message. That moment was a middle finger to Donald Trump.
RIVERA-RIDEAU: Bad Bunny has shed light on many of these issues. I think one of the most recent ways he's done that is through his No Me Quiero Ir Aqui residency that happened this summer in Puerto Rico. This was a 31-day residency, and the first nine shows were only for Puerto Rican residents.
ACOSTA-RUIZ: Bad Bunny has said publicly, I did not perform in the United States for fear that my fans would be attacked by ICE. And so having that kind of concert, which felt like it was dedicated to Latinos, felt like a moment, like there was community around you.
SHAFFER: I'd love to ask you guys, what are your thoughts on Bad Bunny performing at the Super Bowl?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So it's very ironic that somebody who was too afraid to tour in the United States would decide to perform at the biggest American tradition sporting event.
SHAFFER: Yes, and I would like to even ask, if he hates America so much, why does he even want to perform at the Super Bowl?
I would say the most offensive things about Bad Bunny is the fact that he blatantly hates Trump, he's against ICE, they hate our government. People think that conservatives are outraged over the fact that he's from Puerto Rico, but that is fake news.
We don't care that he's from Puerto Rico. We care that he is standing for open borders.
DEVLIN: When you are trying to undermine the rule of law in the United States of America, I don't think it's a surprise that conservatives make their beliefs known in response.
SHAFFER: I feel like it's a middle finger to Americans. Why does he have to be the main performer?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Turning Point USA, the conservative organization funded by the late Charlie Kirk, is planning their own halftime show.
DEVLIN: What Turning Point is trying to say is that this is an American institution. This is not an international institution. We're not going to change our virtues and our values. It's OK to lean into your particular identity.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I think Turning Point USA's Super Bowl halftime show will be much bigger and much greater than Bad Bunny could ever do. So I'm excited to watch that. I think it's going to be great.
DEVLIN: The backlash from conservatives was fairly immediate. And then it makes its way all the way to the White House press briefing room.
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: As far as I speak at the Super Bowl, as far as I'm aware, there's no tangible plan for that in store right now.
DEVLIN: Karoline Leavitt says there's no current plans to do ICE operations at this time. Now, of course, there's typically DHS presence at the Super Bowl. At the same time, Kristi Noem is on Benny Johnson's show saying ICE might actually do operations.
[22:50:12]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will there be ICE enforcement at the Super Bowl?
NOEM: There will be because the Department of Homeland Security is responsible for keeping it safe. So yes, we'll be all over that place.
DEVLIN: So all of these political forces, they are going to come to a head at the Super Bowl.
ACOSTA-RUIZ: I think that Bad Bunny's performance will be a form of resistance to having ICE present there. The Super Bowl itself is such a celebration. And so to have an element there that is meant to drive fear and anxiety is really disappointing.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:55:14]
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Super Bowl LX is set. It'll be a rematch between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hear we're going to the Super Bowl.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Pats are back. We are back.
ACOSTA-RUIZ: There is no bigger stage than an NFL stadium. The eyes of the entire country are watching you. All of the attention is on you, not just for what you're doing in the field of play, but also what you represent. And I think when you have the eyes of the entire country on you, it only brings in more controversy and more criticism.
In 2016, Colin Kaepernick, then the quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, took a knee during the national anthem to really emphasize the racial injustices that were going on in the United States.
COLIN KAEPERNICK, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: There's a lot of things that need to change. One specifically is police brutality.
ACOSTA-RUIZ: He said, this is a league that's predominantly Black and we are affected by the things that are happening outside of the football field and our communities. And it snowballed into this larger thing where folks perceived it as him being unpatriotic or anti- American.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mostly booze, you hear, coming from the crowd in San Diego.
WIRE: So many people felt it wasn't the place for it because it was very disruptive, but isn't that what peaceful protests are, right?
DEVLIN: You can't keep sports and politics separated because ultimately, at the end of the day, culture and politics are always interwoven and they're always interacting with one another.
WIRE: We've seen athletes use their moment in their stage to make a statement whether it was 1936, Jesse Owens at the Olympics.
DEVLIN: Jackie Robinson.
WIRE: 1968, Tommy Smith and John Carlos.
DEVLIN: Muhammad Ali.
WIRE: This Super Bowl, Levi's Stadium, where Colin Kaepernick actually took his first knee during a regular season game. So here we come 10 years later. This year is Super Bowl LX. It's going to be must-see T.V.
DEVLIN: We're returning to Levi's Stadium where Colin Kaepernick took a knee and we could very well head to a repeat of that with the Super Bowl halftime show in 2026.
ACOSTA-RUIZ: It's a platform, especially today, especially if you're talking about black and brown artists. They are going to use the moment to talk about things that are important to them and to their communities.
RAINAO (through translation): I believe it will represent a before and after not only for Benito but for all Latinos.
ROSALES: It's going to be loud. It's going to be Latin. There's going to be a lot of dancing. It's just a moment that everyone's going to be talking about.
ACOSTA-RUIZ: Who gets to define what real American culture is? Who's to say that Bad Bunny's performance isn't that? And I think what's interesting about Bad Bunny performing his songs in Spanish at the Super Bowl halftime show is that he's almost taking it back. Like, my language will not be weaponized. And it doesn't make me less American. It's part of who we are. And it doesn't mean that we don't have to be American.
CRUZ: Just by standing there. His presence there. Bad Bunny is diversity. Bad Bunny is equity. Bad Bunny is inclusion. Everything that the U.S. government under this administration is trying to prohibit is represented in one person.
ACOSTA-RUIZ: I think Bad Bunny is helping to clarify what it means to be an American for some folks who may only see it through one very specific lens. And there are so many different perspectives and different ways to be an American.
RAINAO (through translation): I think it will be a very beautiful, historic moment. I think at that moment, he will speak for many more people than he thinks.
VELAZQUEZ: We are on the world stage today. We are not a foot, no. We are proud of who we are. We are Puerto Ricans, and we will continue to be Puerto Rican.
[23:00:06]
CRUZ: When you know your worth, no one can make you feel less. When you know what you stand for, no one can confuse you. When you know what you love about being who you are, no one can twist that around.
