Donald Trump came on Tuesday with sharp criticism of the late Secretary of State Colin Powell – just 24 hours after the news of his death. Now Trump himself is being insulted from several sides.
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Politicians from both sides of the political landscape have expressed grief and condolences since Former Secretary of State Colin Powell died Monday after complications due to cancer and coronary heart disease.
Former President Donald Trump has not joined the ranks of tributes – and instead criticizes the recently deceased Powell. It does not go unnoticed.
– About 24 hours after Colin Powell’s death, Donald Trump shows once again that he has no empathy, elegance or dignity, writes commentator Chris Cillizza for CNN.
He is one of many who have reacted to former President Trump’s statements following the news of Powell’s death on Monday this week.
–Powell was a Republican, but was branded by Trump as a “Republican in Name Only” (RINO) – a kind of false Republican.
– Fantastic to see Colin Powell, who made big mistakes when it comes to Iraq and, as is well known, so-called weapons of mass destruction, be treated so beautifully after his death by the Fake News media. “I hope the same thing happens to me one day,” Trump said in a statement.
– He made many mistakes
Powell was Secretary of State from 2001-2005, when George W. Bush was president. He became the first black American to hold this office.
As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Under President George HW Bush, Powell was hailed for his efforts during the 1990-91 Gulf War. He later became better known for presenting false evidence to the UN that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction in February 2003.
It is this mistake that Trump is now making fun of.
– He made many mistakes, but no matter: May he rest in peace! The former president concludes his statement.
Trump also describes Powell as “a typical RINO” he says “was always first in line to attack other Republicans”.
– Reprehensible
The statements provoked reactions in the United States on Tuesday night.
– Former President Trump’s comments about the late Powell are among the worst and most pathetic he has ever said. That says something, says New Jerset Governor Phil Murphy in a Twitter post. He hopes the comments “are reminiscent of what the country clearly rejected in last year’s election”.
Former United States Army Chief of Staff Jeff McCausland, a former member of the National Security Council, also responded to Trump’s remarks in a statement. NBC News.
“Powell’s life had its contradictions and irony, but former President Donald Trump manages to both ignore and misrepresent what made him such an important figure,” McCausland writes.
CNN commentator Cillizza has a similar conclusion:
– What Trump’s statement should remind us of is that this man is unique in his self-obsession – and without the ability to look past himself.
Different tone from other presidents
The tone from Trump’s predecessors has been different since his death. In a statement issued Monday, George W. Bush praised his former Secretary of State:
– He was so popular among presidents that he received the “President’s Medal of Freedom” twice. He was highly respected both at home and abroad. And most importantly; Colin was a family man and a friend, wrote Bush, who sent Powell’s family warm thoughts of himself and his wife Laura.
–Also former President Barack Obama and current President Joe Biden Powell recalled in another wording:
“Michelle and I will always look to him as an example of what the United States – and Americans – can and should be,” Obama wrote in the statement.
Powell supported Obama when he ran for president in 2008, even though they belonged to different political parties.
Current President Joe Biden wrote warmly about Powell in one Twitter message Monday. He described the former Secretary of State as a “dear friend” who will be remembered as “one of our great Americans.”
Triggered false vaccine alarm
The fact that Colin Powell died while he was infected with the coronavirus – despite the fact that according to the family he was fully vaccinated – triggered a number of false claims on social media that the vaccine did not work, reports NTB on Tuesday.
“Proof that this vaccine does not even work, and is not even a real vaccine,” it said in a Facebook post that reproduced an article about Powell’s death, writes the news agency.
The claims that the vaccine does not work are rejected by experts, who explain that Powell had a type of blood cancer called multiple myeloma, which undermines the effect of the vaccine. At the age of 84, he was also already more exposed to a serious course of illness.
“If one were to choose the disease that most damages or reduces the response to vaccines, it would be precisely multiple myeloma,” says doctor Onyema Ogbuagu, a specialist in infectious diseases at Yale University, according to NTB.
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