Trump drifts from constitution, former military chief warns

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WASHINGTON, June 7, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Colin Powell, who served as
America’s top military officer and top diplomat under Republican
presidents, said Sunday he will vote for Democrat Joe Biden, accusing
Donald Trump of drifting from the US constitution.

In a scathing indictment of Trump on CNN, Powell denounced the US
president as a danger to democracy whose lies and insults have
diminished America in the eyes of the world.

“We have a constitution. We have to follow that constitution. And
the president’s drifted away from it,” Powell said.

A retired four-star army general, Powell was the latest in a series
of retired top military officers to publicly criticize Trump’s
handling of the mass anti-racism protests that have swept the United
States since the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man,
in Minneapolis May 25.

A tipping point appeared to have been reached last week among the
normally reticent retired officers when Trump threatened to use the
active duty military to quell protests in US cities, setting off a
confrontation with the Pentagon leadership.

Among those who broke their silence was Trump’s former defense
secretary, Jim Mattis, a retired Marine general who accused the
president of deliberately setting Americans against each other and
making “a mockery of our Constitution.”

Powell’s comments carried particular force as the nation’s first
and so far only African American chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the
first black secretary of state, serving under Republican presidents
George H.W. Bush and George Bush respectively.

– ‘Turning point’ –

Powell blasted Republican senators for not standing up to Trump.

“We are in a turning point,” he said.

“He lies about things. And he gets away with it because people will
not hold him accountable,” he said, referring to Trump.

Powell also rebuked Trump for offending “just about everyone in the world.”

“We’re down on NATO. We’re cutting more troops out of Germany. We
have done away with our contributions to the World Health
Organization. We’re not happy with the United Nations.

“And just about everywhere you go you’ll find some kind of disdain
for American foreign policy that is not in our interests,” he said.

– ‘Language of recrimination’ –

In contrast, Condoleezza Rice, Powell’s successor as secretary of
state and who also is African American, counseled setting aside “the
language of recrimination” to help the country heal and move forward.

“I would ask the president to first and foremost speak in the
language of unity, the language of empathy,” she said on CBS’s “Face
the Nation.”

“Not everyone is going to agree with any president, with this
president, but you have to speak to every American, not just to those
who might agree with you,” she said.

Rice also warned against sending in the military to contain
peaceful protest, adding, “This isn’t a battlefield.”

– A vote for Biden –

Rice would not say who she intends to vote for in November.

Powell, a moderate who has distanced himself from the Republican
party in recent years and did not vote for Trump in 2016, said he
would cast his ballot for Biden.

“I’m very close to Joe Biden in a social matter and political
matter. I worked with him for 35, 40 years. And he is now the
candidate, and I will be voting for him,” he said.

“Every American citizen has to sit down, think it through, and make
a decision on their own,” he said. “Use your common sense, say is this
good for my country before you say this is good for me.”