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“We have a Constitution. And we have to follow that Constitution. And the President has drifted away from it,” Powell, a retired general who served under President George W. Bush, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”
The comments from Powell, the first African American secretary of state and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, add to a growing list of rebukes made in recent days by former top officials who have expressed discontent with Trump’s strongman approach to the protests sparked by the death of Floyd, a black man who was killed in late May by a white police officer in Minneapolis.
Powell said he’s “proud” of what a number of former generals, admirals and diplomats have said about Trump’s response last week to the widespread protests, adding that he hadn’t released a public statement denouncing Trump’s response because he felt he had demonstrated his displeasure with Trump in 2016 when he voted against him.
“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 told Tapper.
Powell throws his support behind Biden
“I’m very close to Joe Biden on a social matter and on a political matter. I worked with him for 35, 40 years, and he is now the candidate and I will be voting for him,” Powell said.
Asked why it was so important to him that Trump not be reelected, Powell said that he thinks Trump has not been an effective president and that he lies “all the time.”
“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 told Tapper. “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.”
Nation’s moral standing ‘demonized’ under Trump
Asked by Tapper if he agreed specifically with Mattis’ comments, Powell doubled down on his criticism of Trump.
“You have to agree with it. I mean, look at what he has done to divide us,” he said. “I agree with all of my former colleagues.”
“I’m proud of what they’re doing. I’m proud that they were willing to take the risk of speaking honesty and speaking truth to those who are not speaking truth,” he said.
The former secretary of state told Tapper he thinks the United States’ moral standing on the world stage has been “demonized” under Trump’s leadership.
“They’re looking at these demonstrations. They see that these are demonstrations that are justified. And not to be criticized. They see that George, as the President called him, was murdered and the President comes out and says, ‘Well, George is looking down from heaven and blessing what I’m doing.’ How can you expect anybody to believe things like that?” Powell asked.
This story has been updated with additional developments Sunday.
CNN’s Alison Main contributed to this story.
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