Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who served in the administration of George W. Bush, said Sunday he won’t be voting for fellow Republican President Trump in November’s general election.
“I certainly cannot, in any way, support President Trump this year,” Powell said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “We have a Constitution, and we have to follow that Constitution, and the president has drifted away from it.”
Powell, who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, said protests in dozens of cities after the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer show Americans are getting frustrated.
“I think what we’re seeing now, this massive protest movement I have ever seen in my life, I think it suggests the country is getting wise to this and we’re not going to put up with it anymore,” the retired general and former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
“What we have to do now is reach out to the whole people, watch these demonstrations, watch these protests, and rather than curse them, embrace them to see what it is we have to do to get out of the situation that we find ourselves in now,” he said. “We’re America, we’re Americans, we can do this. We have the ability to do it, and we ought to do it. Make America not just great, but strong and great for all Americans, not just a couple.”
Powell instead said he’ll be voting for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. “I’m very close to Joe Biden in a social matter and in a political matter,” Powell said. “I’ve worked with him for 35, 40 years. And he is now the candidate and I will be voting for him.”
The general joins other high-profile Republicans who vow they won’t vote for Trump this November.
“Former President George W. Bush won’t support the reelection of Trump, and Jeb Bush isn’t sure how he’ll vote, say people familiar with their thinking,” The New York Times reported on Saturday. “Senator Mitt Romney of Utah won’t back Trump and is deliberating whether to again write in his wife, Ann, or cast another ballot this November. And Cindy McCain, the widow of Senator John McCain, is almost certain to support Biden but is unsure how public to be about it because one of her sons is eyeing a run for office.”
Trump slapped back at Powell after his CNN appearance.
“Colin Powell, a real stiff who was very responsible for getting us into the disastrous Middle East Wars, just announced he will be voting for another stiff, Sleepy Joe Biden. Didn’t Powell say that Iraq had ‘weapons of mass destruction?’ They didn’t, but off we went to WAR!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
Colin Powell, a real stiff who was very responsible for getting us into the disastrous Middle East Wars, just announced he will be voting for another stiff, Sleepy Joe Biden. Didn’t Powell say that Iraq had “weapons of mass destruction?” They didn’t, but off we went to WAR!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 7, 2020
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