Roger Waters defends calling Joe Biden a war criminal & other controversial political views

Karma Oak

Roger Waters is on the road now with his This is Not A Drill tour, which, in addition to delivering lots of Pink Floyd classics in a spectacular in-the-round setting, has inspired some controversy too. Never one to shy away from politics, the show opens with a message from Roger on the LED screens: “If you’re one of those ‘I love Pink Floyd but I can’t stand Roger’s politics people,’ you might do well to fuck off to the bar right now," and later in the show he infers that President Biden is a war criminal who is "just getting started." He has plenty of ire for Trump, too.

In an interview with CNN's Michael Smerconish that aired over the weekend, Waters defended his stances on Biden, Ukraine, China and more. Waters said Biden is "fueling the fire in the Ukraine, for a start... That is a huge crime. Why won’t the United States of America encourage [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy, [Ukraine’s] president, to negotiate, obviating the need for this horrific, horrendous war?"

When Smerconish pointed out that Waters was blaming the country being invaded, Waters added, “This war is basically about the action and reaction of NATO pushing right up to the Russian border, which they promised they wouldn’t do when [Mikhail] Gorbachev negotiated the withdrawal of the USSR from the whole of Eastern Europe.”

The conversation, which got a little tense, turned to other wars, including WWII, where Waters' father died. “You got into World War II because of Pearl Harbor. You were completely isolationists [beforehand]. Thank God the Russians had already won the bloody war by then. Twenty-three million Russians died, protecting you and me from the Nazi menace.”

Waters and Smerconish also get into over China and more -- watch below.

It wasn't referenced here, but Roger also recently told Toronto's The Globe And Mail that he’s “far, far, far more important” than the Weeknd and Drake will ever be.