Hillary Clinton: ‘Great deal of respect’ for Colin Powell

Hillary Clinton, responding to recently leaked emails from Colin Powell criticizing her team and saying she kind of screws up everything she touches with “hubris,” said she’s not going to get into discussions of private emails and condemned the Russians for trying to interfere with the election.

“I have a great deal of respect for Colin Powell. And I have a lot of sympathy for anyone whose emails become public,” Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, said in an interview with “The Tom Joyner Morning Show” for blackamericaweb.com posted online Thursday.

“I’m not going to start discussing someone else’s private emails. I’ve already spent a lot of time talking about my own, as you know,” Mrs. Clinton said.

Mr. Powell, the former secretary of state under President George W. Bush, had also said in the emails that he repeatedly warned Mrs. Clinton’s staff to stop trying to tie him to the controversy over her email server. Mr. Powell had a personal email address while in office, but he did not have a private server running out of his home as Mrs. Clinton did.

“What I think is really important about these emails is the chilling fact … that the Russians are continuing to attempt to interfere in our election,” Mrs. Clinton said. “I have to say, I’m increasingly concerned by how we’ve seen Donald Trump’s alarming closeness with the Kremlin become more and more clear over the course of this campaign.”

Mr. Powell’s emails were posted online this week by the group DC Leaks, and Democrats have been pointing fingers at Russia in the wake of the recent Democratic National Committee hack.

Mr. Powell also called Mr. Trump a “national disgrace” in one email.

“It’s unfortunate. But I have a lot of respect for Secretary Powell — didn’t always agree with him,” GOP vice presidential nominee Mike Pence said Thursday on “Fox and Friends.”

“I’m certainly willing to sit down, have a conversation with him. We’ve known each other for many years,” Mr. Pence said. “But look, he’s entitled to his opinion about Hillary Clinton and about Donald Trump.

“I’m sure Colin Powell’s embarrassed about the things that he said about both candidates in those emails,” he said.