By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Colin Power has joined the chorus of military grandees and Washington political heavyweights to criticise United States President Donald Trump over his handling of anti-racism protests, saying he would not vote for Trump in November.
The former U.S. secretary of state lamented on Monday that Trump has “drifted away” from the U.S. Constitution in many ways, including his threats to use the army to quell unrest.
Colin, a Republican, and the only African American to have served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he would vote for Democratic candidate Joe Biden in the presidential election on November 3. He did not vote Trump in 2016.
Trump responded by calling Powell “highly overrated”.
But many others agree with Powel, as Trump is at one of the lowest points of his presidency with recent polls showing that 8 in 10 Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction and even spiraling out of control.
Protests in the U.S. and across the world have continued for the 14th day over the death at police hands of George Floyd, an unarmed black man in Minneapolis on May 25.
On Sunday, nine of 13 Minneapolis City Council members pledged in front of hundreds of protesters to dismantle the local police department and instead create “a new model of public safety that actually keeps our community safe”.
Meanwhile, security measures across the U.S. were lifted as unrest started to ease.
New York ended its nearly week-long curfew, and Trump said he was ordering the National Guard to start withdrawing from Washington DC, the BBC reports.
We have to follow the Constitution, says Powell
On Sunday, Powell told CNN: “We have a Constitution. And we have to follow that Constitution. And the president has drifted away from it.”
Referring to Trump, the retired four-star general said: “He lies about things, and he gets away with it because people will not hold him accountable.”
Powell also said Trumps rhetoric is a danger to American democracy and said, referring to the presidential election in November: “I certainly cannot in any way support Trump this year.”
“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.”
Powell also backed America’s military leaders who had criticised Trump in recent days.
General Martin Dempsey, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman under Barack Obama, told ABC’s The Week earlier on Sunday that Trump’s words had hurt relations between the U.S. public and the military.
And former Defence Secretary James Mattis last week accused Trump of deliberately stoking division, saying he “angry and appalled” by Trump’s handling of the protests.
Reactions from Trump, Biden, others
On Twitter, Trump said Powell was “a real stiff who was very responsible for getting us into the disastrous Middle East Wars”, referring to the 1990-93 Gulf War and the U.S.-led invasion in Iraq in 2003.
Biden also took to Twitter to hit out at Trump’s handling of the protests, saying he had “callously used his [words as a president] to incite violence, stoke the flames of hatred and division, and drive us further apart”.
Former Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, told CBS News’ Face the Nation that she would like Trump to “put tweeting aside for a little bit” and have a conversation with the American people.
“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.
Continuing protests
According to the BBC, the unrest in the U.S. has largely been replaced by peaceful worldwide demonstrations, with Black Lives Matter protests staged in European nations on Sunday.
In the city of Bristol in the UK protesters tore down a statue of Edward Colston, a prominent 17th Century slave trader.
On Saturday, huge peaceful rallies took place across the U.S., including in Washington DC, Chicago, and San Francisco.
There was even a protest in the Texas town of Vidor, once infamous as a stronghold of the Ku Klux Klan white supremacist group.
Floyd, 46, died in police custody in Minneapolis, with video showing him pinned to the floor as a white police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes.
Officer Derek Chauvin has been dismissed and charged with murder. Three other officers who were at the scene have also been sacked and charged with aiding and abetting.
Floyd’s funeral is scheduled for Tuesday in Houston, his home city before he moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota.