In leaked emails, Powell calls Trump a ‘national disgrace’
ASSOCIATED PRESS / SEPT. 2014
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell speaks at the State Department in Washington on Sept. 3, 2014. Powell, in newly leaked emails, criticized both major presidential candidates, calling Donald Trump “a national disgrace” and lamenting Hillary Clinton’s attempt to equate her email practices with his.
WASHINGTON » In a trove of newly leaked emails, former Secretary of State Colin Powell calls Donald Trump “a national disgrace” and suggests his own Republican Party is “crashing and burning.”
Powell also laments Hillary Clinton’s attempt to equate her use of private email at the State Department with his.
The emails, posted on the website DCLeaks.com and first reported by Buzzfeed News late Tuesday, offer insight into the unvarnished opinions of the respected retired Army general who was secretary of state under President George W. Bush. The messages run from March 2015 through last month.
Powell, 79, did not respond Wednesday to a phone message or email seeking comment. He earlier told BuzzFeed that he does not deny the emails’ authenticity.
In the emails, Powell said he stayed relatively quiet during the rise of Trump, the Republican presidential nominee. “To go on and call him an idiot just emboldens him,” Powell said.
To a former aide he writes, “No need to debate it with you now, but Trump is a national disgrace and an international pariah.”
Don't miss out on what's happening!
Stay in touch with top news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It's FREE!
He also criticized Trump for backing the false claim that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.
“All his lies and nonsense just pile up,” Powell wrote. “I just go back to the unforgivable one. Trying to destroy the President elected by the American people with his fictitious investigation into this source of birth. Absolutely disgraceful.”
Trump, in a Twitter post late Wednesday, said, “I was never a fan of Colin Powell after his weak understanding of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq = disaster. We can do much better!”
Powell, a Republican, also suggests frustration with the state of the nation’s politics.
“We all need to start voting for America and not our parties,” Powell writes. “Trump is taking on water. He doesn’t have a GOP philosophy or even a Conservative philosophy. We need a revolution and it will begin with the GOP crashing and burning up its current form.”
DCLeaks.com has been alleged to be an outlet for hackers tied to the Russian intelligence groups. The website, which says it intends to expose the misuse of political power, has previously released emails from other Washington political figures.
The release of Powell’s emails is the latest in a string of leaks that appear intended to influence the 2016 presidential election. The FBI is investigating how thousands of Democratic National Committee emails were hacked and released, an embarrassing breach that Clinton’s campaign maintains was committed by Russia to benefit Trump.
Powell’s leaked messages include his thoughts on Clinton’s lingering email woes. He criticized Clinton aides for tying him into the controversy over the Democratic nominee’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.
Powell has acknowledged using a private email account with both senior U.S. officials and for back-channel communications with foreign dignitaries. Clinton used a private email server located in the basement of her New York home.
Powell wrote that he had told Clinton’s “minions repeatedly that they are making a mistake trying to drag me in, yet they still try.” In another spot, he declared of Clinton that “Everything HRC touches she kind of screws up with hubris.”
The messages contain comments that reflect that he, too, sought to use private email as a way to avoid creating documents retained by the government. Decrying “friggin record rules,” Powell wrote that he “saw email more like a telephone than a cable machine.”
Congressional Democrats have seized on the use of a private email addresses by Powell and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as a foil for Republican attacks on Clinton. By suggesting that he didn’t view work conducted via private email as a permanent government record, Powell could offer those Democrats additional ammunition.
In May, Powell messaged with a former colleague as the State Department’s inspector general prepared to release a report critical of both his and Clinton’s use of private email to conduct government business.
“Wow, I didn’t follow rules,” Powell wrote. “I only revolutionized the information system in the entire State Department. … I think I’ll bash the Department tomorrow. Fifteen years later they come up with this. … Thanks Hillary.”
50 responses to “In leaked emails, Powell calls Trump a ‘national disgrace’”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Thank you General Powell
colin powell has a shallow mind and is an equal opportunity general
like obama he failed to improve the eeo image
and he is a racist and a liberal
I used to respect the man, but once he endorsed Obama for the second time I lost all of it. That said, this article makes it look like the email hacked primarily related to Trump, when a good bit of it just ripped Hillary (and Bill) new ones.
Ah, turn on him now because he doesn’t share the same view as you. I’ll bet you were a supporter until yesterday. What’s wrong with saying that we need to stop voting party, and vote for America? And, Conde Rice also agreed with his comments, I think she’s got a very deep intellect.
Colin, is that because Trump has weapons of mass destruction????
Trump IS a weapon of mass destruction!
I love the way all the left leaning newspapers are using the same headline, vs using that he said everything Hillary touches she screws up with hubris (meaning she’s arrogant and self centered) He’s a smart man, doesnt really like either one of them!
Bingo! and Powell seems to have misjudge one of his points in TheDonald’s self-destruction so … . Just about everything he said about TheDonald is his view but as what he said about Hillary and Bill is the TRUTH. Bill and Hillary have history records serving the Public
Billy/Hilaary combination has been feeding at the Public Tough for over 30 years and until they pass on.
and that hiLIARy hates O.
How Colin & Dem donor Leed was concerned about hiLIARy’s health when she could barely walk up the steps to the podium in one instance. All more important than his (colin) “opinion” on The Donald.
Powell was a scape goat for Cheney. They set him up. That’s why he switched over. Got a BIG knife in his back. Why doesn’t trump just say his real motto is ” “Make America White Again”. Lol.
ok brah you showing your racist mindset….not good.
NB, you’re a well informed man. Powell wasn’t a scapegoat. He was a willing participant. Now, years later he’s playing the “Blame Game.”
RE:Make America White Again comment, I found this article in the LA Times.
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-0914-lopez-trump-longbeach-20160913-snap-story.html
HW puked and passed out, he still completed his presidency ok.
Again, why deflect from, “national disgrace”
The ruling class really resent any attempt by others to enter their domain.
Bingo!
“All his lies and nonsense just pile up,”
He could be talking about himself when he helped “W” and Cheney lead this nation into two wars.
He is wimp, he could have been the 1st Black POTUS, yet he took the easy way out because he self evaluated himself and concluded the was not qualified. Again showing poor judgement. Perhaps being one unqualified,enabled him to declare others the same?
You get more senile every day.
Interesting headline, Powell said a lot more about both Trump and HilLIARy, yet SA chose that headline. Media bias anyone?
Who cares? That doesn’t change the substance of the article. National Disgrace.
If the low intelligence people read past the headlines. Even if you read some of the article, it doesn’t get to the Clintons’ ripping until the latter part of the article.
ouch
There was not much ripping of the Clintons. The most damaging thing was Powell’s comment that ‘Everything [Clinton] touches she kind of screws up with hubris,’ yet it was not even mentioned in the article.
There were lots of quotes ripping on the Clintons, including Bill, that other outlets carried, but this article seems to limit itself to a few of the less incendiary anecdotes as part of the second half filler for the article. Nothing to see here, move along….
Ronin, you are right that comment wasn’t in this article, but it has been in a number of articles. However, it still doesn’t take away from the comment under discussion now.
one can tell which way this rag (newspaper) is leaning
he also said some disparaging words about illiary which you did not report
i will cancel my subscription if this keeps up
First, this is an AP article, not a SA one. Second, the latter half of the article is about his Clinton comments. Third, all of your points do not take away from, “national disgrace.”
“The latter half” of the article…That’s the part people don’t usually read, and certainly not the focus of the article. Also, there were other huge anti-Clinton quotes that other organizations carried from this same treasure trove, but somehow AP didn’t think to include them at all…
Well, you read that part…
Why not in your headline all the things he said about Hillary. It sure was more damaging than what he said about Trump. A little bias there? No wonder no one trust the media. Report the news – don’t shape it – not your job.
Where’s the one about Bill still being Bill and still **d**i$$c**k&&i***i^^g b)i)m)b)o)s?
How can our news media be more pathetically laughable? Where is the report of the leaked Powell emails in which he derides Clinton in equally harsh terms. Also, he is a republican in name only, having endorsed Obama twice.
You are exactly the kind of person Powell describes as a problem, towing a party line instead of what is best for America. Again, let’s assume that the AP only addresses the Trump related comments. So, what do you have to say about those comments? National disgrace….
Gary Johnson for 2016. Spend the next 4 years stoned hoping for better candidates. /sarcasm
Hope Gary Johnson nows knows what Allepo is all about. It was just in the news for over a week and he was dumbfounded. smh
Windward_Side. Maybe he’ll learn about it once you learn how to spell it. He’s on the record for being an noninterventionalist, question was a gotcha out of the blue and he had a brain fart. He admitted it and did give his opinion on the Syrian situation.
One of CP’s emails….
“Count Powell among those with early questions about Clinton’s health.
Powell chatted with Leeds in March 2015 about a column from conservative writer Peggy Noonan titled “Hillary Seems Tired, Not Hungry.” Powell suggested Noonan was on the right track.
“I think there is something to it. On HD tv she doesn’t look good. She is working herself to death,” Powell said, adding: “She will turn 70 her first year in office.”
Fair enough, but those are less severe than national disgrace…Trump is older than Hillary. And I would say that working yourself to death, is better than doing nothing but marketing yourself to death, which is what DT is doing.
In all fairness Trump is still a candidate to become our next National Discrage. President Obama is still National Discrage for another year.
Not sure why spell check changes disgrace to discrage,but we all just cogs in the machine at this point.
Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! I know i was doing the same thing. What does “Disgrage” mean? Probably had Half of the Deplorables here googling that!
No sweat the small stuff Bro.
BTW am proud to be in the “Basket of Deplorables” IMUA
Colin Powell’s Emails also contains comments regarding Congress,and boy, did he nail it! In which he states.
“Toss Out Congress Incumbents That Do NOTHING!”and continues. ” who don’t fix taxes,fix the Infrastructure,but get Super Rich out of the system,eliminate gerrymandering,etc. And none of this is Presidential”……now who would he be referring to ?
(This statement is not here in this AP story.)
Also states “We need to start voting for America,and not our Parties” BINGO Again!
And my fav? “Everything HRC touches,she kind of screws things up with hubris”.
One of my favorites..”No one likes Hillary, she hates Obama for winning the 2008 election”
Exactly, so why don’t you look beyond party lines as well? I continually see you disparaging “dems” and “libs”
Gallup reported yesterday that public trust in media is at an all-time low. Two more reasons why. NYTimes and StarAdvertiser articles noted the General’s comments re Trump but didn’t have enough space to report his other comments:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3789648/I-not-vote-Hillary-husband-d-i
“Everything HRC touches she kind of screws up with hubris.”
https://theintercept.com/2016/09/13/colin-powell-emails/
Powell’s emails stated: “I would rather not have to vote for her, although she is a friend I respect. A 70-year person with a long track record, unbridled ambition, greedy, not transformational, with a husband still dicking bimbos at home.”
Powell’s emails stated: “I would rather not have to vote for her, although she is a friend I respect. A 70-year person with a long track record, unbridled ambition, greedy, not transformational, with a husband still d—ing bimbos at home.”
Powell is probably a little envious of Bill and his :::ahem::: extracurricular “activities.”
I imagine Bill can’t wait to get back into the White House so he can go at all the young interns there…..