But a hack of Mr Powell’s e-mails this week has ripped away the diplomatic jargon and political niceties to reveal his unvarnished disdain for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, whom he called a “national disgrace”.
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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”.
The man who served three presidents called Mrs Clinton “greedy, not transformational” and Mr Trump “a national disgrace” and “international pariah”, and said that Bill Clinton, a president he worked for, was “still d***ing bimbos at home”, referring to his past extramarital dalliances. Powell said he exhausted of Clinton and her team using him as an example of a Secretary of State who used a private email server. “We need a revolution and it will begin with the GOP crashing and burning up its current form”.
Clinton said the fact that hackers are targeting Powell raises new questions about Republican nominee Donald TrumpDonald TrumpTrump’s campaign contradicts him on Obama’s birthplace Pence: Democrats giving off a “whiff of desperation” Clinton: “Ugliness, ‘ “bigotry” the best Trump can do MORE ” s praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
When the FBI started investigating Clinton’s handling of confidential emails, Clinton had indicated that her practices of using a private email server had been used by Powell before her. Powell had publicly dismissed these claims, claiming that she was trying to pin the blame on him. It may be the latest example of a Russian entity potentially trying to influence the United States presidential election – in July, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said it believed Russia was behind the hack of the Democratic National Committee’s internal emails right before they party’s convention.
Powell did not respond to a phone message or email seeking comment.
He earlier told BuzzFeed that he does not deny the emails’ authenticity.
In a July 24, 2014 email, however, Powell made clear his discomfort with Clinton, writing: “I would rather not have to vote for her, although she is a friend I respect”. What did not change is the advice and the stern messages that he gave Hillary and her camp regarding her email server.
The emails were published on the website dcleaks.com, which is suspected to be run by the Russians. When Powell arrived at the State Department, the information technology system was badly dated, he argued.
“She was using email when she took over”. Decrying “friggin record rules”, Powell wrote that he “saw email more like a telephone than a cable machine”.
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“Wow, I didn’t follow rules”, Powell wrote.
