Charles Barkley criticizes Iran war, Artemis II mission and Pam Bondi

After Charles Barkley talked about immigrants during a recent segment on March Madness, this week’s “Saturday Night Live” moved on to expressing his views on other issues.

Barkley, played by Kenan Thompson, quickly ventured from the subject of college basketball to current current events, such as the American intervention in Iran (“War is terrible. Innocent people are being killed, and I don’t care who started it, but we have to put an end to it.”) and the Artemis II moon mission.

“A waste of money,” Thompson-as-Barkley said of the space program. “They don’t even go to the moon; they just fly all around the moon.”

Later, Barkely spoke about President Trump’s firing of Attorney General Pam Bondi, who, played by Ashley Padilla, also joined the segment.

“So great to be here for the last four years of this country,” Padilla-as-Bondi said. “I’m sorry, Charles, but I can’t let the lies you said about me go unanswered. The truth is, I was great at my job, and I’m proud to say I made history as the first woman ever fired as Attorney General. I shattered that glass exit door. I miss it already, and they threw my head shot in the trash like it was the Epstein files. What am I going to do?”

During a March 29 broadcast Barkley spoke candidly after a segment showed student athlete Alex Karaban, whose parents immigrated to the United States.

“I want to be very careful with my words right now,” Barkley said. “Because this is a very sensitive subject for me. I love that child and his family. But the way some of these other immigrants are being treated in our country right now is a travesty and a shame. I think there’s a difference between great immigrants and criminal immigrants. And I think what’s going on in our country — what we’re doing to some of these great immigrants — is really unfortunate and sad.”

Watch the cold open below.