Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was not pleased with Beyonce’s Super Bowl halftime show performance, which he thought was overly political with an anti-police message.
“It was really outrageous that she used it as a platform to attack police officers, the people who protect her and protect us and keep it alive,” he said on “Fox News Monday.”
Beyonce performed her recently released song “Formation” during halftime of Super Bowl 50, a song mostly about black female empowerment. Though the song’s lyrics feature no direct references to law enforcement, her music video for it contains references to police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Many watching the halftime show Sunday night, including the National Sheriff’s Association, were turned off by Beyonce’s use of the song during an event as universally watched as the Super Bowl.
“You’re talking to middle America when you have the Super Bowl,” Giuliani said. “So if you’re going to have entertainment, let’s have decent, wholesome entertainment and not use it as a platform to attack the people who put their lives at risk to save you.”
He went on to offer his take on what should be done about the division between law enforcement and many black communities that has widened in the wake of many highly publicized cases of police officers killing young black men.
“What we should be doing in the African-American community and all communities is building up respect for police officers … The vast majority of police officers risk their lives to keep us safe,” he said.
Giuliani also railed against the quality of the halftime show, which also featured Bruno Mars and Coldplay.
“The halftime show, I thought it was ridiculous anyway, I had no idea what the heck it was, a bunch of people just bouncing around. It was terrible,” he said. “I don’t even know why we have this. This is football, not Hollywood.”