Former Secretary of State Colin Powell says that the Republican party still has a “dark vein” of intolerance among its ranks. As one of the highest ranking African Americans ever appointed by a sitting President, Powell echoed a statement he had made in 2013.
Powell spoke Sunday, the day after the 50th Anniversary of the civil rights march in Selma, on ABC’s This Week.
“I still see it. I still see it in the Republican Party and I still see it in other parts of our country. You don’t have to be a Republican to be touched by this dark vein.”
Powell said that there still needs to be progress made, but he does see hope in the younger generation. According to the Wall Street Journal , Powell also expressed his disappointment with laws that seem to be restricting voting rights, especially for African-Americans, by requiring identification to vote. He urged African-American voters to meet the ID requirements, but then vote out the people responsible for the laws.
The retired four-star General also said he was “shocked” by the Justice Department’s report of systemic discrimination against African-Americans by the police in Ferguson, Missouri.
“I was shocked but not that surprised… I know these things have existed in other parts of our country. This shouldn’t have been that great a surprise to any of us. But it’s not throughout the country.”
As reported by Yahoo! News , Powell declined to comment directly on the e-mail scandal brewing for former Secretary of State and possible Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. He stated it would be inappropriate for him to say anything about the situation.
As the Inquisitr reported, Clinton is being accused of violating the State Department’s e-mail policy by using a private e-mail account for department business. Many people have speculated it could hurt her chances for being nominated as the Presidential candidate for the Democratic Party.
He said during the interview Sunday that he started using e-mail to get everyone else in the department to use it, but he didn’t retain any of his e-mails. He says he is now working with the State Department about his own e-mail situation.
Powell did echo President Obama’s speech that was given in Selma during the 50th anniversary celebration. He noted that while progress had been made, such as the election of an African-American President, there was still a lot of work left to do and “the march is not yet over.”
“We’ve made enormous progress. If we hadn’t made progress, [President Obama] wouldn’t have been standing there, Eric Holder wouldn’t have been with him and I wouldn’t be here right now. But we still now have hurdles that we have to get over.”