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I Agree With Colin Powell

by Noor Al-Sibai

In emails obtained and released to the media by hacker site D.C. Leaks on Tuesday, former Secretary of State Colin Powell had more than a few choice words about another former Secretary — Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. The leaks, in which Powell discusses everything from Clinton to Donald Trump to Benghazi, paint an interesting portrait of one of the country's most powerful men. By my assessment, Colin Powell's emails about Hillary Clinton were spot-on in their analysis of her own email scandal and Clinton's role in American politics.

In his leaked emails, Powell puts forward wisdom about the scandals that surround Clinton, making these leaks perhaps the first in recent history to actually make their owner more credible. One of his most astute observations centers on the controversy that could have been avoided had Clinton chosen to head off her alleged personal email server scandal by owning up to it when it first arose:

Sad thing. HRC could have killed this two years ago by merely telling everyone honestly what she had done and not tie me to it.

Powell went on to say that he reportedly told her staff three times to not drag his own alleged email scandal into their drama, and that he "had to throw a mini tantrum at a Hampton’s party to get their attention."

The former Secretary of State was more verbose in his criticisms of what he considers to be the Clinton campaign's alleged spin on her email controversy. In one email, he said the Clinton campaign was "going to dick up the legitimate and necessary use of emails with friggin record rules." In the email, sent to Powell's business partner Jeffrey Leeds, he bluntly stated what he thinks about Clinton, claiming that "everything HRC touches she kind of screws up with hubris."

I and many politically-minded folks I'm close to have said for months now that Clinton could have turned the scandal around and come out a victor had she stayed on top of the allegations about her private email server, but instead, her campaign chose to deny the allegations, putting her in serious hot water that could, ultimately, result in the worst-case scenario of a Trump presidency. Reading Powell echoes what so many of us were thinking in such a candid way and definitely emboldens that criticism, although at this point, it's water under the crumbling bridge that is the 2016 presidential election.

While it's certainly troublesome that D.C. Leaks and Guccifer 2.0 have been accused of allegedly having ties to Russia, these leaks are, if nothing else, a fascinating look into the the casual correspondences of the uber-powerful. Everyone who works in politics knows that everyone talks smack about everyone, but to get a behind-the-scenes look at Powell's true thoughts on Clinton, especially given their seeming friendship in public, lends credence to the idea that all is not well within both the Democratic and Republican Parties.