By Al Edwards

Former Secretary of State General Colin Powell will not be supporting fellow Republican, President Donald Trump in November’s election.

Instead he will be backing presumptive Democrat nominee Joe Biden.

Speaking on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ hosted by Jake Tapper, the retired four-star general said: “ I’m very close to Joe Biden in a social matter and a political matter. I have worked with him for 35, 40 years. And he is now the candidate and I will be voting for him. I cannot in any way support President Trump this year.

“We have a Constitution and we have to follow that Constitution and the President has drifted away from it.”

General Powell’s parents immigrated to the United States from Jamaica in the 1920s arriving in the country on a banana boat. Going through the New York public education system he rose through the ranks of the US Army. In the 80s he served as President Ronald Reagan’s national security adviser.

In 2001, he was appointed by President George W. Bush as secretary of state, the first African American to hold that position. He served for four years (2001-2005).

“Colin Powell, a real stiff who was very responsible for getting us into the disastrous Middle East Wars just announced he will be voting for another stiff, Sleepy Joe Biden.”

United States President Donald Trump

President Trump was very robust in responding to the news that he will not be getting General Powell’s vote, tweeting: “Colin Powell, a real stiff who was very responsible for getting us into the disastrous Middle East Wars just announced he will be voting for another stiff, Sleepy Joe Biden. Didn’t Powell say that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction? They didn’t but off we went to WAR.”

President Trump continued: “ Somebody please tell highly overrated Colin Powell that I will have gotten about 300 Federal Judges approved (a record), Two Great Supreme Court Justices, rebuilt our once depleted Military, Choice for Vets, Biggest Ever Tax & Regulation Cuts, Saved Healthcare & 2A & much more!”

Commenting on Trump’s turn as president, General Powell declared: “I mean look at what he has done to divide us. He is insulting us throughout the world. He is being offensive to our allies. He is not taking into account what our foreign policy is and how it is being affected by his actions.”

Back in 2016, General Powell received three votes in that year’s Electoral College and he didn’t even contest the presidency. That put him third in line to hold America’s highest political office.

In his 1995 biography, ‘My American Journey’ General Colin Powell wrote: “Mine is the story of a black kid of no early promise from an immigrant family of limited means who was raised in the South Bronx and somehow rose to become the National Security Advisor to the President of the United States and then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“It is a story of hard work and good luck, of occasional rough times, but mostly good times. It is a story of service and soldiering. It is a story about the people who helped make me what I am. It is a story of my benefiting from opportunities created by the sacrifice of those who went before me and maybe my benefiting those who will follow. It is a story of faith – faith in myself and faith in America. Above all, it’s a love story: love of family, of friends, of the army and of my country. It is a story that could only happen in America.”