Well, I’ve characterized immigration and mass migration as civilizational warfare. Is the latest weapon deployed in this war a Bad Bunny?

On this week’s episode of The Drill Down with Peter Schweizer, he and co-host Eric Eggers get into the political reactions to Bad Bunny’s halftime show at the Super Bowl. For Schweizer, author of a brand-new, bestselling book on immigration, there’s more than a few fake passes.

The Bad Bunny halftime show, completely in Spanish, has generated a backlash among conservatives who feel it’s disrespectful to American culture, and corresponding cheering from political liberals angry about President Trump’s immigration enforcement.

The NFL

“I’m going to say the three things I most blame for the political reaction to the Super Bowl halftime show,” says Schweizer. “And the number one, because of the content of show, is the NFL itself… So, why would the NFL do this? Clearly, about 78 percent of the American people don’t speak Spanish. But they made this intentional choice.”

It’s because the NFL is a business with revenue goals, and its president, Roger Goodell, sees a huge market in South and Central America for American football. “They topped out at $23 billion in revenue this year. They have a stated goal of achieving $25 billion in the next few years and let me tell you how they plan on doing it… Latin America,” Schweizer says. “They have 40 million fans in Mexico and Brazil. So, this is the growth market they want to attack.”

Even when 80 percent of the television audience, and probably 95 percent of the fans in the stadium, didn’t understand a word of what he sang.

Bad Bunny and the Cosmic Race

The second person to blame for the political reaction is Bad Bunny himself.

“Bad Bunny was in the 2020 halftime show with JLo and Shakira, which was criticized for lots of reasons,” Schweizer goes on. “But Bad Bunny shouted ‘Viva La Raza!’ during the 2020 show, which means ‘Long Live the Race.’ And what did he mean by ‘the race?’”

“Well, La Raza goes back to this concept I talk about in my book – the Cosmic Race – which is this idea that the Latin American left has embraced,” Schweizer says. “It’s been around for 100 years, this book [La Raza Cósmica], which says that Anglos, (that’s white people like us) are sort of inherently selfish. Our culture is bad. Our culture is individualistic.”

“But Latinos are the ‘cosmic race,’ the superior race. They’re going to transcend because they’re more caring. They’re more giving. They’re more collectivist,” Schweizer says. “So, when he shouted that at the 2020 Super Bowl, that was a political message that he was trying to convey.”

“To me, it’s not enough to just say, ‘Well, okay, the NFL, they’re looking to expand to Latin America,’” he says. “They picked this particular Latin artist to do it.”

Bad Bunny also has an interesting backstory, with “some Venezuelan ties to the Hugo Chavez government,” Schweizer found. “He got his start with an entertainment company called Rimas, which was co-founded by Rafael Ricardo Jimenez. He was a former captain in the Venezuelan Army and was a senior ranking official in the Hugo Chavez government.”

“This guy had a military background and, in 2014, he provided $2 million. He was the co-founder of this entertainment network that launched Bunny’s career,” Schweizer discovered. “That’s particularly interesting and puts it in a political context. I don’t recall having studied Bad Bunny’s political views… but I see no criticism of the Chavez government or of the Cuban government. I don’t see anything.”

The Mexicans also loved it. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who appears very often in Schweizer’s book, thought it was wonderful that the show was in Spanish and that they shouted out countries all across the Americas in the song, not just the US. Mexican senators and Morena Party officials chimed in too. The secretary of the Morena Women’s Secretariat, Citlalli Hernández Mora, said “this is not the time for lukewarmness in the face of hate speech.”

Peter Schweizer

Finally, Eggers takes over and puts the third reason for the political reaction to the Bad Bunny performance right where it belongs… on Peter Schweizer.

“But I blame you because I’ve worked with you and I’ve read your book, The Invisible Coup: How Foreign Powers and America Elites are Using Immigration as a Weapon,” Eggers says. “And for 13 minutes, no English is spoken, and it seems to be a celebration of a culture and countries that include not the United States. And I couldn’t help but think of you.”

“Well, I appreciate that. Thank you!” Schweizer replies. “And you will think of me when you think of Bad Bunny,” he quips.

“I wouldn’t want to spend my time in the halftime show thinking about this stuff either, except for the fact that it was so in-your-face,” Schweizer says. “Roger Goodell is a smart guy. I might not agree with him on some things…. But my point is he’s a smart guy. He knew what he was doing when he chose Bad Bunny to do this show.”

Schweizer’s The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and is available to purchase here.

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