Morrissey Blasts ‘Hateful’ Media, Wishes Public ‘Christmas Free of Terrorism’ In End of Year Speech (Video)

Musician and former Smiths frontman Morrissey denied he would kill President Donald Trump, attacked the “hateful” media, and wished the public a Merry Christmas “free of terrorism” in an end of year speech posted online this week.

After claiming no radio station would play one of his latest songs, Morrissey declared, “I suspect it is because of the hateful press I have received over the last three weeks in Britain by the usual outlets, mainly the Guardian and so-forth.”

“Everything that they said goes back to a recent interview I regrettably gave Der Spiegel in Germany, the newspaper,” he continued, referencing headlines that claimed he supported Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey, and would kill President Trump. “After a very pleasant conversation it emerged in print and suddenly I was sympathizing with sexual harassment. I was apparently sympathizing with pedophilia, I was sympathizing with rape, I was sympathizing with everything that would persuade anybody on the planet to stop listening to me. Of course, none of those assumptions were true, and you can hear it in the tone of my voice.”

“However this is the world we now live in with the print media, it seems to me that in the first place they get very angry or very excited if you start to say something that people are listening to or that reflect the will of the people. They get very nervous, they won’t allow it, they shut it down, and so-forth,” Morrissey proclaimed. “But also it seems to me that in England at the moment, the right-wing has adopted a left-wing stance, and the left-wing has adopted a right-wing stance, so everybody is confused and nobody seems to know what people mean. This shuts down free speech, this shuts down any open debate about anything, and consequently we’re all in a mess and we don’t know where we stand.”

In his video, Morrissey then claimed he was investigated by the Secret Service after he reportedly claimed he would press a button to kill President Trump in the Der Spiegel interview, which he has since disavowed in a statement, expressing, “Would I kill Donald Trump? No, never.”

“As a further result of Der Spiegel I was cross-examined by the American Secret Service, who are very nice, and I do understand their position, so that went very very well, and they assured me that they had no cause for concern,” he explained. “But it was a direct result of Der Spiegel that I was cross-examined, which is very very sad, so congratulations Der Spiegel, you achieved everything you set out to do. Whether again I’m allowed in re-access to America, I really don’t know. I have to wait and see if I can get into the country again, but we never know.”

“By being frightened about everything, you simply target people willy nilly about who we know nothing, and you write things about people who you’ve never met, and you denigrate them and destroy them,” Morrissey continued, on the topic of the media. “Because there’s a certain blame and shame culture that has arisen where all of us are destroyed constantly, no matter what we do, and it doesn’t really matter what we do and what we say. Occasionally it becomes hard to live with. Certainly on issues of pedophilia and sexual harassment, rape… I think critics consider all the things that are important to your audience and therefore they consider all the things that would turn your audience against you, and that is what they accuse you of in order to make your audience angry with you, because they know there’s no other way, especially when you’ve been around as long as I have. And I’ve been assassinated many many times.”

In his conclusion, Morrissey brought up the Manchester terrorist attack in May, in which Salman Abedi killed 22 people, including an eight-year-old girl, outside of a concert by American pop star Ariana Grande.

Following the attack, Morrissey criticized British politicians, including British Prime Minister Theresa May and London Mayor Sadiq Khan, for refusing to cite Islam and immigration as the reason for the attack.

“As the year closes now, I’d like to remember all the kids in Manchester who were murdered on May 22nd of this year, they’re largely forgotten, because most terrorist activities are immediately forgotten, I find,” he declared. “So I would like to remember them, I would like to let their spirit know they are remembered by at least me if not many other people.”

“I wish you a Christmas free of terrorism, and these days that’s all you can ask for,” Morrissey concluded. “Be safe.”