Colin Powell: Trump has ‘drifted away’ from Constitution, will vote for Biden

Colin Powell, a retired four-star general and former U.S. secretary of state, said President Donald Trump has “drifted away” from the Constitution with his handling of growing unrest in the nation after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25.

“We have a Constitution. We have to follow that Constitution," Powell, 83, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program Sunday morning. “And the president’s drifted away from it. I’m so proud of what these generals and admirals have done and others have done.”

Powell’s remarks follow those of former Secretary of Defense James Mattis, who on Wednesday called Trump “the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people."

Powell, who did not vote for Trump in 2016, said he would vote for former Vice President Joe Biden.

“I cannot in any way support President Trump this year,” Powell said.

“I think he has been not an effective president. He lies all the time. He began lying the day of the inauguration when we got into an argument about the size of the crowd that was there," Powell told CNN. “People are writing books about his favorite thing of lying. And I don’t think that’s in our interest.”

Powell was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1993 under President George H.W. Bush, and served as Secretary of State to President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005.

Trump responded with two tweets later Sunday morning, calling the former general “highly overrated” and “a real stiff."

Cox Media Group