Today in Politics, Bulletin 304. 2/9/26

… Republicans continue to melt down over the Super Bowl halftime show by Bad Bunny as they rolled out MAGA alternative Kid Rock. Their principle objections to the show were: 1. Bunny sang in Spanish; 2. He’s not a “real American” since he’s from Puerto Rico. That is also why TPUSA called their event the “All-American” halftime show. As if mass deportations weren’t alienating latino voters enough already for Republicans, now we have this.

… Then we learned that the TPUSA event was pre-recorded and badly lip-synched by Kid Rock. We also learned that the organizers did everything they could to manipulate the view count to make it look more popular than it was in reality, allegedly using software known as “viewbotting.” We also learned at the Mar-a-Lago Super Bowl watch party, Trump and his cultists did not watch the TPUSA event - opting to check out Bunny instead.

… Trump posted during the show, which appeared to be pre-written based on the time-stamp: "The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER! It makes no sense, is an affront to the Greatness of America, and doesn’t represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence. Nobody understands a word this guy is saying, and the dancing is disgusting, especially for young children that are watching from throughout the U.S.A., and all over the World. This “Show” is just a “slap in the face” to our Country. There is nothing inspirational about this mess of a Halftime Show and watch, it will get great reviews from the Fake News Media, because they haven’t got a clue of what is going on in the REAL WORLD.”

… The real world is apparently Mar-a-Lago.

… Bad Bunny’s closing messages during his Super Bowl performance: “The only thing more powerful than hate is love,” and “Together, we are America.”

… Variety: “Without an announcer to offer context, there was no indication of where the performances were being broadcast from, or if they were taking place in real time. According to sources, the show was pre-taped in Atlanta. Much of the performance appeared to be pre-recorded, as he only raised the mic to his mouth for about half of the lyrics, if that, as widely noted on social media.”

… Country singer-songwriter Zach Bryan: “I don’t care what side you’re on, a bunch of adults throwing temper tantrums and their own halftime show is embarrassing as hell and the most cringe shit on the planet.”

… TV Insider: “The Independent states that the initial 25-minute broadcast of the All-American Halftime Show was viewed approximately 4 million times. NYT reported slightly higher numbers, noting that the show drew 6.1 million concurrent viewers on YouTube. In comparison, Bad Bunny’s performance is projected to draw around 128 million. This would make his set one of the most-watched halftime shows in history, though a little behind Kendrick Lamar‘s 133.5 million record set last year.”

… “Official numbers for Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance have yet to be released, though CBS reported that early figures show it was the most-watched halftime performance of all time with more than 135 million viewers. Apple Music said that his halftime show press conference also broke records and was ‘the most watched in Super Bowl history’ with more than 63 million views across an array of related content, including the live stream and social clips.”

… CNN’s Brian Stelter: “We won’t be getting any Super Bowl game or halftime show ratings today. Overnights are basically a thing of the past, due to Nielsen’s new ‘Big Data + Panel’ approach, which takes an extra day to capture the full audience. Nielsen and NBC will share numbers Tuesday late afternoon.”

… “Contrary to some of the nonsense on this platform, though, there is no doubt that the Apple Music halftime show was exponentially more popular than Turning Point USA’s attempt at counter-programming. TPUSA drew 6 million. The halftime show always draws well over 100 million.”

… X commentator Turnbull: “The final numbers haven’t come in but it’s likely that NBC will generate close to, if not over $1B, from Super Bowl advertising revenue. The TPUSA halftime show had no sponsors. They claim 5M views, which I doubt, so they may generate about $25K in YouTube revenue.”

… Axios’s Andrew Solender: “My takeaway from the Super Bowl ads is that the entire American economy is being propped up by AI, weight loss drugs, cryptocurrency and gambling.”

… Ghislaine Maxwell refused to answer questions before the Oversight Committee in her deposition today. Her attorney David Markus issued a statement: “Maxwell will respectfully invoke her Fifth Amendment right to silence and decline to answer questions today even though she would very much like to answer your questions. If this Committee and the American public truly want to hear the unfiltered truth about what happened, there is a straightforward path. Maxwell is prepared to speak fully and honestly if granted clemency by President Trump.”

… Chair James Comer was asked by The Independent about the demand from Maxwell that she will only testify if Trump releases her from prison: “This was something new today. Obviously, that’s not for me to decide - that’s up to the president to decide.”

… Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA): “Here is my conclusion after sitting through Maxwell’s deposition with her refusing to answer a single question about the men who raped underage girls, saying she would only do so for clemency. She must immediately be sent back to the maximum security prison where she belongs.”

… Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ): “So Maxwell can chat with Trump’s former personal lawyer, but pleads the Fifth when Congress asks about Epstein’s co-conspirators. What did Trump promise her? The DOJ needs to release records of their talks with Maxwell.”

… Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL): “Maxwell is now claiming that she was a victim of Epstein. Meanwhile, she has been moved to a very nice prison. Now, they are going to try to transfer her to a prison in DC. She does not deserve any special treatment. Child sex traffickers deserve ONE punishment - the death penalty.”

… Fox: “After reviewing Epstein documents at DOJ, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) says there’s evidence of victims as young as 9 years old.”

… Just a reminder that Trump’s former criminal defense attorney, now Dep. AG Todd Blanche transferred Maxwell to a Club Fed where she plays with puppies and goes to joga classes.

… Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) was asked by Meidas about the new revelations: “9 year old victims? Initially my reaction to all this was, I don’t care, I don’t know what’s the big deal is? But now I see what the big deal is. So members who have been pushing this, they were not wrong.”

… Raskin: “I was able to determine, at least I believe, that there were tons of completely unnecessary redactions in addition to the failure to redact the names of victims, and so that’s troubling to us.”

… “There’s no way you run a billion-dollar international child sex trafficking ring with just two people committing crimes, Epstein and Maxwell. No way. It doesn’t work like that. So we need to figure out what other conspiracies were involved, what other co-conspirators were involved? And I really do believe that listening to the survivors is going to be our pathway through this nightmare.”

… “Epstein’s lawyers quoted Trump as saying that Epstein was a guest at Mar-a-Lago and he was never asked to leave, and that was redacted for some indeterminate reason. It seems to be at odds with some things that Trump has been saying recently about how he kicked Epstein out of his club.”

… Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) after viewing he unredacted files: “I mean it’s disgusting. There are lots of names, lots of co-conspirators, and they’re trafficking girls all across the world.”

… Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) discussed that as well as Trump’s racist post about the Obamas: “All this admin cares about is protecting the powerful and protecting pedophiles. They will do anything to distract from that, including deciding to put up in the middle of Black History Month the most racist thing that we’ve ever seen come out of a WH.”

… The Atlantic: “The email that federal law enforcement sent this week to the nation’s top election administrators would have been routine just a few years ago. FBI Election Executive Kellie Hardiman: ‘Your election partners would like to invite you to a call where we can discuss preparations for the cycle.’ But multiple secretaries of state who received the document told us they viewed it as a threat, given recent events.”

… “The FBI had just seized 2020 election materials in Georgia, and Trump had announced his desire to ‘nationalize’ elections, a state responsibility under the US Constitution. ‘The trust has been absolutely destroyed,’ said ME Sec. of State Shenna Bellows. The sentiment is not confined to Dems. Some GOP election officials said that federal officials’ activities involving elections have become so unusual that they are starting to question the officials’ competency and motives. These state officials wonder whether the feds are trying to do what Trump has accused others of doing: rig an election.”

… “Trump has already said that he will accept the results only ‘if the elections are honest,’ and has mused that ‘we shouldn’t even have an election’ given that the midterms typically result in defeats for the president’s party. He has called for the greater use of identification at all polling places, a ban on mail voting, and a prohibition on certain types of voting equipment.”

… “Inside the WH, his obsession with disproving the results of the 2020 election, which he lost, has led to the creation of a standing working group that meets regularly to coordinate federal efforts to investigate past elections and reform future election processes.”

… “Elections officials told us they are now getting ready for interference from both foreign adversaries and the WH. Several said they are still deliberating whether to show up to the FBI-hosted meeting scheduled for Feb 25. Others said they will attend but not speak out of concern that their information could be turned against them.”

It wasn’t a super heavy news day with Trump doing nothing and Congress doing almost nothing, although there were definitely several very important stories. I certainly expect a busy day tomorrow. If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin recapping the weekend, you can find it here.

… Immigration attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: “ICE has now spent over half a BILLION dollars just on purchasing warehouses around the country to convert into detention camps. If these mega-camps are utilized to the full capacity ICE intends, they'll be the largest prisons in the country, with little to no real oversight. Right now Rikers Island, the physically largest jail in the entire US, is holding under 7,000 people.
ICE's warehouse plans include detention camps which will hold between 8,500-10,000 people in buildings not designed for human habitation.”

… “Purchasing and converting these warehouse detention camps will cost the US govt billions of dollars. So far ICE has purchased at least half a dozen warehouses at a cost of $70-$110 million each. It'll cost billions more to refit them into detention camps, and hire staff. In the last month ICE has bought warehouses in: