Colin Powell, former top military officer and diplomat under Republican presidents accused Donald Trump on Sunday of drifting from the US constitution and said he will vote for Democrat Joe Biden.
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Powell is the latest in a series of retired top military officers to publicly criticize Trump’s handling of the mass anti-racism protests that have swept the United States since the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in Minneapolis May 25.
Powell’s comments carried particular force as the nation’s first and so far only African American chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the first black secretary of state, serving under Republican presidents George HW Bush and George Bush respectively.
In contrast, Condoleezza Rice, Powell’s successor as secretary of state and who also is African American, counseled setting aside “the language of recrimination” to help the country heal and move forward.
Endorsing Biden
Powell, a moderate who has distanced himself from the Republican party in recent years and did not vote for Trump in 2016, said he would cast his ballot for Biden.
