Obama applauds Bad Bunny Super Bowl performance: ‘It was smart because it wasn’t preaching’

Former President Barack Obama applauded Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime show after criticism from President Trump and other Republicans.

“It resonated. It was smart because it wasn’t preaching. It was showing. It was demonstrating and displaying: this is what a community is," Obama said on Brian Tyler Cohen's podcast.

“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. It was intergenerational 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," he added. 

Some Republicans argued that some of the lyrics were inappropriate and should have been censored during the show.

Obama acknowledged not all the lyrics were "politically correct" but he still praised the performance.

"I guarantee you not all those lyrics were probably politically correct - and if you translated them... you know, people are complicated. But there was a sense of, all right, there’s room for everybody here," he said. 

Bad Bunny has touched on political issues before, such as expressing anti-ICE views at the Grammys this month. He didn't mention ICE, specifically, at the Super Bowl but said during the performance that "the only thing more powerful than hate is love."