Early Saturday morning, CNN host Michael Smerconish shared a clip from an extensive interview with Pink Floyd founder Roger Waters that grew heated when the interviewer brought up the Russian invasion of Ukraine which brought a virulent rebuke from the rock star.
Smerconish introduced the segment by noting that Waters is known for his controversial political views and twice during the interview the Pink Floyd frontman snapped at the CNN host.
“Are you an equal offender on this tour?” Smerconish prompted. “I remember the last tour, I came and watched, very much about Trump. In the current show, there’s a montage of war criminals, according to you, and a picture of President Biden on the screen and it says, ‘just getting started.’ What’s that all about?”
“Joe Biden is fueling the fire in Ukraine for a start,” Waters shot back. “That’s a huge crime. Why won’t the United States of America encourage Zelenskyy to negotiate, obviating the need for this horrific, horrendous war?”
“But you’re blaming the party that got invaded. You got it reversed,” Smerconish protested.
“Any war, when did it start?” Waters parried. “You can look at the history, you can say it started on this day, you can say it started in 2008, okay? This war is… this war is basically about 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.”
“When you say this, then I have to say what about our role as liberators? you of all people –,” Smerconish offered which led Waters to cut him off with, “You have no role as liberators!”
“World War II,” Smerconish attempted.
“You got into World War II because of Pearl Harbor,” the rock star countered. “You were completely isolationist until that sad, that devastating, awful day.
“I would argue we were always going to get in and that pushed us in, but thank God the United States got in, right? You lost your father in World War II. Thank God the United States –,” the CNN host replied as Waters cut him off with, “Thank God the Russians had already won the bloody war almost by then. Don’t forget 23 million Russians died protecting you and me from the Nazi menace.”
“You would think the Russians would have learned their lesson from war and wouldn’t have invaded Ukraine, fair?” the CNN host asked.
“You with all your –,” the exasperated rock star began before changing gears and telling the host, ‘I would suggest to you, Michael, that you go away and read a bit more and then try to figure out what the United States would do if the Chinese were putting nuclear-armed missiles into Mexico and Canada.”
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