Colin Powell, whose last position in government was serving as George W. Bush’s secretary of State from 2001-2005, was on CNN Sunday afternoon, during which he made a shocking announcement.
And by shocking, I mean apparently to everyone but him.
“I can no longer call myself a fellow Republican,” Powell told host Fareed Zakaria. “I’m not a fellow of anything right now. I’m just a citizen who has voted Republican, voted Democrat throughout my entire career.”
Powell continued:
“And right now I’m just watching my country and not concerned with parties. I do not know how he’s able to attract all these people. They should’ve known better. But they were so taken by their political standing and how none of them wanted to put themselves at political risk, they would not stand up and tell the truth or stand up and criticize him or criticize others. And that’s what we need: We need people who will speak the truth, who will remember that we are here for our fellow citizens, they are here for our country. They are not here simply to be re-elected again. Come on, guys, you can make it in private life if you don’t get re-elected. But right now we need you to be real Americans who we can trust, who will tell the truth, who will argue on the basis of facts and not just argue on the basis of what their primary looks like.”
Colin Powell: “I can no longer call myself a fellow Republican.” pic.twitter.com/6xGnzeUg4Y
— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) January 10, 2021
Powell’s revelation is hardly a revelation at all. Powell has endorsed Democrats exclusively since 2008, choosing Barack Obama over moderate Republican John McCain. Powell again endorsed Barack Obama in 2012, despite his utter failure to revive the economy, and his disastrous foreign policy failures, including losing Iraq, the quagmire in Libya, and the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. Powell also endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2016, and Joe Biden in 2020, over Donald Trump. Even most Never Trump Republicans supported McCain and Romney over Obama. By any objective measure, he bears as much resemblance to a Republican as I do to a Democrat. I can’t even say “See ya later,” because Powell effectively left the party over a decade ago.
At least now the mainstream media won’t get to call him a Republican.
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Matt Margolis is the author of Airborne: How The Liberal Media Weaponized The Coronavirus Against Donald Trump, and the bestselling book The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama. You can follow Matt on Twitter @MattMargolis