Colin Powell Says He Can No Longer Call Himself A Republican

Powell shared his thoughts on CNN on Sunday about Wednesday's attack on the US Capitol.

The violence led to the deaths of five people and succeeded in temporarily interrupting congressional hearings to verify the election of US President-elect Joe Biden.

Anchor Fareed Zakaria asked Powell if he thought Republicans who refused to condemn US President Donald Trump realized that they "encouraged this wildness to grow and grow."

"They did," Powell agreed. "And that's why I can no longer call myself a fellow Republican," he stated.

"I'm just a citizen who has voted Republican, voted Democrat throughout my entire career and right now I'm just watching my country and am not concerned with parties," Powell explained.  

Powell said that he is "not a fellow of anything right now".

"I do not know how Trump was able to attract all these people," Powell said speaking of the US president's apparent magnetism.

"They should have known better but they were so taken by their political standing they would not stand up and tell the truth or criticize him, or criticize others," he said, the Daily Mail reported.

"We need people who will speak the truth and who remember that they are here for their fellow citizens and our country, and not just to be re-elected again."

On Friday, Powell argued for Trump to resign immediately just as President Richard Nixon did following the Watergate scandal.

"I wish he would just do what Nixon did and step down. Somebody ought to go up there and say it's over. The plane is waiting for you, you're out. That way he would not only step down. He would in addition sort of cut the guts out from underneath this group of people who he has working for him," he told Today.

"What he is responsible for is one of the most disgusting things I have ever seen in all my years as a government employee here in the United States of America and in Washington, DC," Powell continued.

"He should be totally ashamed of himself, and he should take that shame and turn it into a resignation as quickly as possible."

In August, Powell endorsed Joe Biden, calling him "a president we will all be proud to salute."

Powell, 83, served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and national security adviser in the 1980s and 1990s.

After retiring from the military in 1996 he joined the Republican Party and at one point was thought to have been a possible contender for a presidential run.

He was secretary of state under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005.