Former secretary of state Colin Powell said that he would be voting for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at a suburban New York event on Tuesday.
Powell told members of the Long Island Association of his intentions at the event, The New York Times reported. According to Matthew Cohen, the trade group’s spokesperson, Powell had praise for Clinton’s leadership skills and expertise.
“He said he would support Hillary Clinton and he also elaborated on several reason[s] why he felt that Donald Trump was not the right candidate,” Long Island Association board member Paule Pachter told the Times. “He spoke about his inexperience, he spoke about the messages that he’s sending out every day to his supporters, which really paints our country in a negative light across the globe with all our allies.”
The support represents a switch from earlier jabs Powell had thrown at Clinton.
He had been critical of her in an e-mail that was leaked earlier this year saying that her aides tied him into the controversy over the her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. In the e-mail, which had been primarily critical of Donald Trump, Powell said: “Everything HRC touches she kind of screws up with hubris.”
Powell’s criticisms of Trump, were much harsher by comparison, calling him a “national disgrace” and an “international pariah.” He also said the billionaire presidential hopeful “is in the process of destroying himself. “To go on and call him an idiot just emboldens him,” he said.
