Former Republican Secretary of State Colin Powell said at an event Tuesday on Long Island in New York that he planned to vote for Hillary Clinton for president next month.
The New York Times reports that Powell was speaking before the Long Island Association, a trade group that frequently hosts political figures, when he made his intentions clear.
Matthew Cohen, a spokesman for the organization, told the Times that Powell said, “I’m voting for Hillary Clinton,” and praised Clinton for her leadership skills and experience.
Long Island Association board member Paul Pachter told the Times that Powell was blunt.
“He said he would support Hillary Clinton and he also elaborated on several reasons why he felt that Donald Trump was not the right candidate,” Pachter said. “He spoke about his inexperience, he spoke about the messages that he’s sending out every day to his supporters, which really paints our country in a negative light across the globe with all our allies.”
As previously reported on The Root, in hacked emails made public in September, Powell was critical of Trump and felt that the GOP candidate had piled onto a “racist” movement when he joined those who believe that President Barack Obama is not a U.S. citizen.
Leaked emails also showed that Powell was critical of Clinton, noting that the Democratic presidential candidate’s “minions” were attempting to “drag me in[to]” the controversy surrounding Clinton’s use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state.
During her interview with the FBI concerning the use of the email server, Clinton told investigators that Powell had advised her to use a personal email account.
Powell’s remarks Tuesday are a complete change in tone from the comments he made in the leaked emails, and make him the latest Republican to come out in support of Clinton. As previously reported on The Root, George H.W. Bush is also reportedly voting for Clinton.
Read more at the New York Times.