Pink Floyd rocker Roger Waters unloaded on President Joe Biden during a Saturday interview on CNN, accusing the Democratic president of “fueling the fire” in Ukraine and claiming that the United States had “no role as liberators” when it came to the Eastern European nation’s war against neighboring Russia.
The aging British rocker spoke with CNN anchor Michael Smerconish about his willingness to continue to engage in political discussions from the stage while on tour — and in addition to calling out President Biden, he suggested that the United States was “lucky” the Russians had already crippled Nazi Germany before American troops arrived during World War II.
WATCH:
Pink Floyd rocker Roger Waters accuses President Joe Biden of "fueling the fire" in Ukraine — and suggests Russia did the heavy lifting in World War II before the Americans even arrived. pic.twitter.com/FmaJpYjjEe
— Virginia Kruta (@VAKruta) August 8, 2022
Smerconish noted that Waters has actually increased his political commentary while on tour — going so far as to announce at the beginning of a show that anyone who loved Pink Floyd but hated Waters’ politics could “f*** off to the bar right now” — and included a photo of the Democratic president among others he considered to be war criminals.
“Well, [Biden] is fueling the fire in Ukraine for a start. That’s a huge crime,” Waters explained. “Why won’t the United States of America encourage Zelensky, the president, to negotiate; obviating the need for this horrific, horrendous war?”
“You’re blaming the party that got invaded. Come on, you’ve got it reversed,” Smerconish pushed back.
Waters argued that the war between Russia and Ukraine was the predictable result of NATO encroaching upon Russia’s borders rather than a unilateral invasion at the whim of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He described it as “the actions and reaction of NATO pushing right up to the Russian border, which they promised they wouldn’t do when Gorbachev negotiated the withdrawal of the USSR from the whole of Eastern Europe.”
“What about our role as liberators?” Smerconish asked.
“You have no role as liberators!” Waters shot back, prompting Smerconish to bring up the United States’ role in World War II.
But Waters was apparently not convinced that the American troops had been liberators even then — and suggested that it was really the Russians who had won the war before the United States even had boots on the ground.
“Thank God the Russians had already won the bloody war almost by then,” Waters said, noting that the U.S. hadn’t even officially entered the war until after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. “Don’t forget 23 million Russians died protecting you and me from the Nazi menace.”
Waters went on to defend China later in the interview, arguing that reports of human rights abuses in Communist China were just “propaganda.”
Roger Waters: The Chinese didn’t invade Iraq and kill a million people in 2003. In fact, as far as I can recall, hang on a minute, who have the Chinese invaded and murdered, slaughtered?
Smerconish: Their own..
RW: Bollocks, that’s absolute nonsense. Complete nonsense. pic.twitter.com/XHRPpPN84B— Virginia Kruta (@VAKruta) August 8, 2022
“The Chinese didn’t invade Iraq and kill a million people in 2003. In fact, as far as I can recall, hang on a minute, who have the Chinese invaded and murdered, slaughtered?” Waters asked, appearing to suggest that American involvement in Iraq was a better example of human rights abuses.
“Their own. Their own,” Smerconish replied.
“Bollocks, that’s absolute nonsense. Complete nonsense,” Waters dismissed the idea out of hand.