From the DC Leaks archive of hacked emails from Colin Powell’s personal email account, via Will Rahn, CBS News.
Powell Called Cheney an Idiot
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell slammed Dick Cheney in private emails seen by BuzzFeed News.
Said Powell, about the former vice president’s book written with his daughter, Liz: “They are idiots and spent force peddling a book that ain’t going nowhere.”
“The email, to Kenneth Duberstein — the former White House chief of staff to President Ronald Regan — was about the Cheneys’ September 2015 book, Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America.”
In another story, Powell slammed Donald Trump’s closest military adviser, retired Gen. Michael Flynn, in an email as “right-wing nutty” and “a jerl.”
Colin Powell’s Advice to Hillary Clinton
This newly-released email from Colin Powell to Hillary Clinton advising her about avoiding “systems that captured the data” is extraordinary.
Powell Advised Clinton to Avoid State Dept Servers
Newly-disclosed emails show that former Secretary of State Colin Powell told Hillary Clinton at the start of her tenure at the State Department that he used a personal computer to conduct government business, and took steps to avoid “going through the State Department servers,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The new emails appear to show Mr. Powell suggesting he intentionally conducted work-related emails with foreign leaders and State Department officials using a personal computer or the personal accounts of government staffers.”
Quote of the Day
“Be very careful. I got around it all by not saying much and not using systems that captured the data.”
— Colin Powell, quoted by Politico, in an email to Hillary Clinton in 2009, warning that if she was using a BlackBerry to “do business,” the emails could become “official records and subject to the law.”
Why Is Colin Powell’s Foundation Treated Differently?
Matthew Yglesias has a must-read piece on former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s charitable foundation and why it’s treated differently than the Clinton Foundation.
Because Colin Powell did not have the reputation in the mid- to late ’90s of being a corrupt or shady character, his decision to launch a charity in 1997 was considered laudable. Nobody would deny that the purpose of the charity was, in part, to keep his name in the spotlight and keep his options open for future political office. Nor would anybody deny that this wasn’t exactly a case of Powell having super-relevant expertise. What he had to offer was basically celebrity and his good name. By supporting Powell’s charity, your company could participate in Powell’s halo.
But when the press thinks of you as a good guy, leveraging your good reputation in this way is considered a good thing to do. And since the charity was considered a good thing to do, keeping the charity going when Powell was in office as secretary of state was also considered a good thing to do. And since Powell was presumed to be innocent — and since Democrats did not make attacks on Powell part of their partisan strategy — his charity was never the subject of a lengthy investigation.
Which is lucky for him, because as Clinton could tell you, once you are the subject of a lengthy investigation, the press doesn’t like to report, “Well, we looked into it and we didn’t find anything interesting.”
Kirk Will Vote for Colin Powell Instead
Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) plans to write in Colin Powell’s name for president on his general election ballot this November, Politico reports.
Quote of the Day
“I want to continue to be a Republican because it annoys them.”
— Colin Powell, quoted by the Daily Mail, noting that the “the party has shifted much further right than where the country is.”
Colin Powell Backs Iran Deal
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell told NBC News he supported the nuclear agreement with Iran, calling the various planks Iranian leaders accepted “remarkable” and dismissing critics’ concerns over its implementation.
Said Powell: “It’s a pretty good deal.”
Powell added that critics are “forgetting the reality that [Iranian leaders] have been on a superhighway, for the last 10 years, to create a nuclear weapon or a nuclear weapons program, with no speed limit.”
