This Former Republican Secretary of State Just Backed Hillary Clinton
Apparently, Colin Powell is over Hillary Clinton trying to drag him into her email scandal.
On Tuesday, Powell, the former secretary of state under President George W. Bush, broke ranks with his Republican Party and said he’s backing Clinton, a Democrat, over GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump. Speaking at the Long Island Association Fall Luncheon, the former top diplomat and four-star general condemned Trump and praised the stamina of the former New York senator and secretary of state under President Barack Obama, according to reporters who were there.
Powell got sucked into the scandal surrounding Clinton’s use of private email while at the State Department when her camp pointed out that he had done the same as the nation’s top diplomat. Clinton told the FBI that Powell had advised her to use a private server.
In August, Powell denied this, telling People magazine, “Her people have been trying to pin it on me. The truth is she was using [her email setup] for a year before I sent her a memo telling her what I did.”
In September, hacked emails showed that the retired Army general had reservations about both candidates, but saved his more colorful language for Trump. Powell described Trump as a “national disgrace” and an “international pariah” and called conspiracy theories Obama was not born in the United States racist. Powell also called Clinton “greedy.”
Still, Powell is the latest Republican to defect from his party’s nominee and back Clinton. This list includes former President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board Chairman Brent Scowcroft, former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, and former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.
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