Hacked Emails Reveal Powell's Contempt of Trump

Former secretary of state calls him a 'national disgrace'
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 14, 2016 6:18 AM CDT
Updated Sep 14, 2016 6:30 AM CDT
Hacked Emails Reveal Powell's Contempt of Trump
Colin Powell in a 2012 photo.   (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

The emails of a former United States secretary of state are again making headlines in the 2016 race, and this time Donald Trump is the one who won't be pleased. Hackers got into the personal account of Colin Powell, and the former secretary of state is revealed to have called Trump a "national disgrace" and an "international pariah" who peddles racist sentiment, reports BuzzFeed. The website says the emails were obtained by the site DCLeaks.com, which is suspected to have ties to Russian intelligence services, per the Wall Street Journal. A June 17 email calling him a "national disgrace" was to a former aide in which Powell adds that Trump was "in the process of destroying himself"—thus sparing Democrats lots of work.

In another email to that same former aide on Aug. 21, Powell went after Trump as racist, citing his previous push to try to show Obama wasn't a US citizen. "Yup, the whole birther movement was racist," Powell wrote. "When Trump couldn't keep that up he said he also wanted to see if the certificate noted that he was a Muslim." In another, Powell tells CNN's Fareed Zakaria that he's reluctant to call out Trump publicly because it would backfire. “To go on and call him an idiot just emboldens him.” The former secretary of state confirmed the emails' authenticity to NBC News and said the hackers have more to come. In fact, the Daily Caller reports that hackers stole two years of Powell's emails, from June 2014 to August of this year. (More Colin Powell stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X