During the Smerconish episode, which is hosted by commentator Michael Smerconish, Waters lands a series of body blows and exposes the CNN audience to the kind of truth they are not usually allowed to hear.
The interview took place a month into the North American leg of Waters’This Is Not A Drill tour, and saw a wide-ranging number of subjects covered, include the war in Ukraine, Taiwan’s relationship with China, and Biden’s war crimes.
Smerconish began the interview by asking Waters why he included Joe Biden in a montage of “war criminals” that feature in his current live set. Watch part one of the interview below:
“Well, he’s fuelling the war in the Ukraine,” Waters responded. “That is a huge crime. Why won’t the United States of America encourage [Volodymyr] Zelensky to negotiate, obviating the need for this horrific, horrendous war?”
Via Loudersound:
Smerconish countered that Waters was looking at the situation backwards, blaming Ukraine for being invaded, but the singer disagreed, referring to the “action and reaction of NATO pushing right up to the Russian border,” comparing the situation to a hypothetical one in which China put nuclear missiles into Mexico or Canada.
After Smerconish responded to suggest that China are currently “too busy encircling Taiwan” to consider such a move, an agitated Waters took the host to task.
“They’re not encircling Taiwan!” he exclaimed. “Taiwan is part of China. And that’s been absolutely accepted by the whole of the international community since 1948 and if you don’t know that, you’re not reading enough. Go and read about it.”
Watch part two of the interview below:
Waters also talked about the introduction to the This Is Not A Drill shows, where a warning is displayed that reads, “If you’re one of those ‘I love Pink Floyd, but I can’t stand Roger’s politics’ people, you might do well to f*ck off to the bar right now. Thank you, and please enjoy the show.”
Waters said that the message was a way of “setting things straight” before going on to say that, “It also encourages a lot of the people who’ve come to the show because they have listened to everything I’ve written since, you know, 1965 or wherever I started writing songs. So, they do know what my politics are and they do understand where my heart is and they understand sort of why I’m there.”
(Article by Baxter Dmitry republished from NewsPunch.com)
