Superstar Bad Bunny of Puerto Rico showed his support for Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday by posting a video of the vice president’s intentions for the island on social media, just after a speaker at Donald Trump‘s event in New York made an inappropriate remark that infuriated many.
Approximately 500,000 Puerto Ricans reside in battleground Pennsylvania, where the Harris and Trump camps have been fighting for the Puerto Rican vote. Instagram user Bad Bunny, whose following numbers over 45 million, shared the promotional video with his followers.
Related: Bad Bunny’s Net Worth (Career, Early Life, & Personal Life)
In the video, which Bad Bunny repeatedly reshared with an emphasis on Trump, Harris said, “I will never forget what Donald Trump did and what he did not do when Puerto Rico needed a caring and a competent leader.” “After two devastating hurricanes, he tried to block aid, left the island, and provided nothing but insults and paper towels.”
Shortly after Hurricane Irma caused widespread power disruptions in Puerto Rico, Hurricane Maria in 2017 claimed thousands of lives. Then-President Trump faced criticism for throwing goods, including paper towels, at Puerto Ricans while assessing the island’s damage following Hurricane Maria.
The post from the Bad Bunny As the Harris campaign looks to strengthen celebrity endorsements, Sunday was the first time the musician showed support. And it happened as anger grew following comments made by comedian and podcast host Tony Hinchcliffe about Puerto Rico at Trump’s event in Madison Square Garden.
A lot is going on; for example, I’m not sure you are aware, but there is currently a floating rubbish island in the middle of the ocean. Yes. He responded, “I believe it’s called Puerto Rico.” The United States owns Puerto Rico.
According to a person familiar with the matter, Harris’s campaign staff had contacted Bad Bunny’s team to get him to endorse the vice president’s Puerto Rico proposal.
According to the source, “this has been a thoughtful and deliberate approach focused on the issues.”
CNN was informed by a Bad Bunny spokesman that while his Instagram repost of Harris’ video was “not an endorsement,” he was “supporting” Harris. “Puerto Rico has always been Benito’s political focus,” his spokesperson told CNN. The question of whether the singer would issue a formal endorsement before the election was not made clear by his spokesperson.
According to a source familiar with the Harris campaign’s Hollywood outreach, a celebrity endorsement from Bad Bunny has been at the top of the list for months. Given Bad Bunny’s widespread influence in the Latino community, the campaign hopes his endorsement will help influence young male Latino voters, who have tended to favour Trump.
Along with Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez, the campaign shared the vice president’s statement on social media to honour Bad Bunny.
Luis Fonsi, the singer of “Despacito,” joined the chorus of Puerto Rican celebrities who expressed their support for Harris by sharing a video clip of Hinchcliffe’s remark at the Trump rally with his 16 million Instagram followers. He captioned the picture, “Are you serious?”
“I appreciate people who believe differently than I do, and it’s acceptable to hold differing opinions. Fonsi said in his Instagram story, “But going down this racist path ain’t it,” and included emoticons that indicated he was voting for Harris.
Harris spoke on the difficulties facing Puerto Rico and her island-focused initiatives at Freddy & Tony’s Restaurant, a Puerto Rican eatery in north Philadelphia, earlier on Sunday.
