US election 2020: Colin Powell calls out Trump's lies and will vote for Joe Biden

Colin Powell will be voting for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden in the 2020 election, the former Republican secretary of state said today.

Speaking on CNN’s State of the Union, General Powell said: “I certainly cannot in any way support President Trump this year.”

He did not vote for Donald Trump in 2016 either and criticised the president because “he lies”.

Explaining his relationship with former VP Biden, Mr Powell said: “I'm very close to Joe Biden in a social matter and in a political matter. I've worked with him for 35, 40 years. And he is now the candidate and I will be voting for him.”

He went on to say that he wouldn’t be doing any campaign trips on behalf of the Democratic candidate but he would be speaking on his behalf, saying that campaigning is not his strong suit.

Mr Powell also slammed the record of the current president and his actions particularly over the past week.

“We have a Constitution and we have to follow that Constitution and the president has drifted away from it,” he said.

General Powell criticised the response to nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd and police brutality and the failure by Republican members of Congress to hold the president accountable for his actions.

The heart of Mr Powell’s criticism of the president is that he lies.

“The one word I have to use with respect to what he's been doing for the last several years — it's a word I would never have used before, I never would have used with any of the four presidents I've worked for — he lies. He lies about things,” Mr Powell said. “And he gets away with it because people will not hold him accountable.”

The president responded on Twitter shortly after the interview, first calling Mr Powell “a real stiff” and criticising his role in the Iraq War, and then listing his own apparent achievements while in office.

Mr Powell served as secretary of state for George W Bush from 2001 to 2005 and was a key figure in building a coalition for the Iraq War.

He voted for Barack Obama in 2012 and Hillary Clinton in 2016 — hacked emails from the Clinton campaign have him refer to Mr Trump as a "national disgrace".

In 2016, Mr Powell picked up three electoral college votes of his own that year, technically making him third in the presidential election.

Several longtime Republicans who have held political and military offices will not vote for Mr Trump in 2020, as criticism of the 45th president’s handling of anti-police-brutality protests intensifies in the wake of the death of George Floyd and other black Americans.

Former President George W Bush will not vote for Mr Trump this November, The New York Times has reported. His brother, former Florida Governor and 2016 GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush, is still deciding who he’ll vote for, the Times said.

Utah Senator Mitt Romney, the only Republican who joined Democrats in voting to convict Mr Trump in February for abusing the power of his office, will not vote for Mr Trump in November, the Times reported.