Senior EMN Fellow Retired Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson shares what the public doesn’t know about former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who died on Monday.
After standing by Powell’s side for more than a decade, Wilkerson gives an exclusive look at Powell’s internal conflict, blind spots and disillusionment over his role in the Iraq War.
Figures like Edward Snowden, Tom Drake, Chelsea Manning, John Kiriakou and a host of other whistleblowers loom large today above a world full of mostly sycophantic, cowardly and selfish adherents to the “rules.” Such truth tellers actually better represent the traditional nonconformist American ideal than any of their rule-of-the-road, stick-to-the-script fellow citizens.
Imagine you’re President Joe Biden. You need $2 trillion dollars to fund one of your stated priorities – infrastructure. You learn of a war plane, the F-35 Lightning II, that would cost as much as $1.7 trillion to buy, field and maintain over the next 50 years. It’s $200 billion over budget, and more than ten years behind schedule. What do you do?
Lawrence Wilkerson: If Biden wants to actually respect and protect American troops, he must put a stop to stupid, endless wars.
Former Lt. General Michael Flynn is facing intense scrutiny for floating the idea that President Trump should invoke martial law to overturn this fall’s free and fair presidential election.
Lawrence Wilkerson, retired U.S. Army Colonel and former chief of staff for Secretary of State Colin Powell, joined MSNBC’s Chris Hayes to discuss his shock at Flynn’s willingness to intervene in battleground states and “re-conduct” the elections. He criticizes Flynn for inciting insurrection — “something a military officer shouldn’t do” — and says he should be rebuked and reprimanded for his actions.
Watch the full clip here.