Washington: Ruing that President Donald Trump “lies all the time”, former Secretary of State Colin Powell became the first Republican to endorse Democratic candidate Joe Biden for the upcoming presidential election.
“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 told CNN in an interview.
In response to the endorsement, Biden said in a tweet: “This isn’t about politics. This is about the future of our country. Grateful for your support, Secretary Powell.”
The former top diplomat slammed Trump calling him an ineffective leader, who has “drifted away” from the US Constitution and “lies about things”.
“We have a Constitution. And we have to follow that Constitution. And the President has drifted away from it,” Powell, a retired general, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”
“The situation has gotten worse,” Powell told CNN in an interview, adding: “Every American citizen has to sit down and think (it) through… Use your common sense. Say, ‘Is this good for my country?’
Powell had led the US military during the 1991 Gulf War in Iraq under Republican former President George HW Bush and later led the Department of State under President George W Bush.
In response to Powell’s interview, Trump took to Twitter recalling the role the former Secretary of State played in the narrative pushed by the George W Bush administration that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and that the US had to go to war with the Middle Eastern nation to ensure they were not used against Washington or its allies.
“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,” Trump tweeted.
“Didn’t Powell say that Iraq had ‘weapons of mass destruction?’ They didn’t, but off we went to WAR.”
The President also said that Powell, a four-star general, is “overrated”.
