Donald Trump responded on Twitter to Colin Powell’s leaked emails calling him a “national disgrace”, dismissing the criticism.
Advertisement
Also included in the emails hacked was a message Powell wrote to big-time Democratic donor Jeffrey Leeds regarding Hillary Clinton and her husband Bill Clinton.
Powell also took aim at Trump’s long-running effort to prove President Barack Obama was born outside the US, deeming the so-called “birther” movement “racist” while, elsewhere, dismissing his fellow Republican’s efforts to woo black voters.
The e-mails, which were first reported by Buzzfeed News, were posted password protected on the website DCLeaks.com, a hacker site which posts e-mails from high level officials.
Mr Powell, who has been quiet during the election, said he had “no further comment” but was “not denying it”.
In leaked emails posted on website DC Leaks, Mr Powell also blasted Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump as “a national disgrace and an worldwide pariah”, a stinging attack on the brash billionaire from a cabinet member in the last Republican administration.
In a separate email sent on 21 August, Mr Powell also criticised Mr Trump for promoting the birther movement, which questioned whether President Barack Obama was born in the US.
“Yup, the whole birther movement was racist”, Powell wrote in an email to a former aide last month. That’s what the 99 per cent believe.
“Everything HRC touches she kind of screws up with hubris”, he wrote in one email.
But Powell, didn’t just take Trump to task, he also had a few choice words for Hillary Clinton’s camp. The candor on display in some of these emails is now playing havoc with Powell’s carefully crafted reputation in political circles. Powell literally told them not to “drag me in”.
Even so, Powell voices his frustration with the Clinton campaign in one of the latest leaked emails, reported by NBCNews. I think I’ll bash the Department tomorrow. He reportedly gave her “written guidance” on how he had gone about corresponding digitally, which included setting up a private AOL account – not a server – for sending and receiving private, non-classified emails.
Powell said he spent a week with attorney Cheryl Mills and the Clinton team “burying the flap”.
If you want to read some of Powell’s other more juicy comments from the leak, you can check this list at The Washington Post.
Advertisement
Powell doesn’t pull any punches for Clinton either. I wanted her staff three times the past two years not to try to connect it to me.
