Leaked emails from former Secretary of State Colin Powell show him strongly criticizing Donald Trump, labeling him a “national disgrace and an worldwide pariah”.
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When approached regarding the accuracy of the emails, Powell’s aide Peggy Cifrino told CNN that the emails were “accurate”.
The remarks about Trump were part of an email sent on 17 June to Emily Miller, a journalist and Mr Powell’s former aide.
A subsequent email to the same former aide on August 21 slammed Trump for spurring the “racist” so-called “birther” movement – the consistently debunked rumor that President Barack Obama was born in another country. “When Trump couldn’t keep that up he said he also wanted to see if the certificate noted that he was a Muslim”. “As I have said before, ‘What if he was?’ Muslims are born as Americans everyday”. The private cyber security firm ThreatConnect has reported its suspicion that DCLeaks was a Russian-backed operation, linked to the notorious hacker Guccifer 2.0, who on Tuesday released more data stolen from the Democratic National Committee.
He chided the media for their coverage of Trump, saying in another email, “To go on and call him an idiot just emboldens him”.
“For him to say yesterday that within four years he would have 95% of blacks voting for him is schizo fantasy”, Powell wrote, adding, “And (former Fox News chief Roger) Ailes as an adviser won’t heal with women”.
“You guys are playing his game, you are his oxygen”, Powell wrote in December. Powell, a respected retired general who served under Republican presidential administrations, told BuzzFeed that he does not deny the emails’ authenticity.
Mrs Clinton has pointed to Mr Powell’s use of his personal AOL account at the state department as an example of why her email use was common practice.
In a series of emails he asks Cheryl Mills, who has worked with both Bill and Hillary, to make sure his name is not brought up when members of the Clinton team speak about her email scandal.
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NBC national correspondent Peter Alexander reports for TODAY. “She can’t believe it or accept it”. I warned her staff three times over the past two years not to try to connect it to me.
