Insisting that he is still a Republican, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Chuck Hagel is “superbly qualified” to be the next secretary of state and he is confident that the former Nebraska senator “will do a great job.”
“I think he gets confirmed,” Powell asserted. “He’s superbly qualified based on his overall record, based on his service to the country, based on how he feels about troops and veterans and their families.”
Powell, who supported President Barack Obama in each of his election bids, spoke at length about Hagel’s accomplishments, going through them chronologically beginning with the two-time senator’s military duty in Vietnam. He noted that the president's nominee has a “very, very distinguished public-service record that he can stand on.”
“It might be useful just to stand back and take a look at this man overall,” Powell said. “This is a guy who knows veterans, knows the troops, knows the USO. I’ll tell you who thinks that makes him a good candidate for secretary of defense — the men and women in the Armed Forces of the United States and their parents, who know that this is a guy who will be very careful putting their lives at risk because he put his life at risk. He knows what war is.”
Regarding the controversial comments about Iran and Israel that have politicians questioning Hagel's fitness to serve, Powell said “he is a fellow who speaks his mind. He sometimes gets in trouble with those who think he should not speak his mind. He says what he believes, and he sticks with it.”!
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