Former Secretary of State Colin Powell will deliver a surprise speech at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday, Fox News has learned, marking the most public resignation of President Trump’s Republican since announcing in June that he would vote for presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
While he is not on the official list of speakers for Tuesday’s DNC line-up, a source within the Democratic National Committee has confirmed that Powell will make a speech at the virtual convention.
Powell, who endorsed Barack Obama’s presidential offerings in 2008 and 2012 and voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, has been a fierce critic of Trump – recently criticizing Trump for his handling of the protests following the death of George Floyd as a police officer. Minneapolis. The former Secretary of State under President George W. Bush also said in June that he would vote for Biden in this year’s general election.
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“I absolutely can not support this year’s president in any way,” Powell told CNN ‘State of the Union’ in June. “We have a constitution and we have to follow that constitution and the president has been fired from it.”
“I’m very close to Joe Biden in a social issue and in a political issue,” Powell added. “I have worked with him for 35, 40 years. And he is now the candidate and I will vote for him.”
Trump has not kept quiet when it comes to Powell’s criticisms of his presidency – Powell throws in a false argument to the United Nations that Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction as justification for the US invasion of the country.
“Colin Powell, a real stiff who was very responsible for bringing us into the disaster during the Middle East wars, just announced that he will be voting for another stiff, Sleepy Joe Biden,” Trump tweeted. ‘Did Powell not say that Iraq’ had weapons of mass destruction? ‘They did not, but we went to WAR! “
Powell has been sharply critical of Trump even before he was elected, with hacked emails from the former secretary of state showing he called Trump a “national disgrace” and an “international pariah.” Powell’s emails, which first appeared on the DCLeaks.com website, have also smeared him to Trump for questioning former President Barack Obama’s birth certificate.
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“Yup, the whole birther movement was racist,” Powell wrote. “That is what the 99 percent believe. When Trump could not keep that up, he said he would also like to see if the certificate noted that he was a Muslim. Like I said before, ‘What if he was?’ Muslims are born every day as Americans. ”
Powell’s performance at the DNC marks another move by Democrats to force moderate Republicans tired of Trump to vote for Biden. The DNC presented speeches on Monday by former Republican Govs. John Kasich of Ohio and Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey.
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It also comes amid speculation that a number of key establishment Republican figures will not vote for Trump coming November. The New York Times reported earlier this summer that President George W. Bush, and often Trump critic, sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, will not vote for the current Oval Office resident, and there are rumors that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Cindy McCain, the wife of late Arizona Republican Senator John McCain, are also considering voting against Trump. (McCain is expected to appear Tuesday night in a video at the DNC).
Trump has also faced shrinking criticism from his own former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and the permission by Republican sen. Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski’s wrestling ‘with the ballot for the incumbent president of her own party – all of which has heightened speculation that Trump could see a major myth of establishing Republicans in the general election.
