Social media reacts to Powell and Cindy McCain at DNC ​​2020

In an excerpt from the video shared with The Associated Press, Cindy McCain explained how Biden, then a senator from Delaware, met her husband when John McCain was assigned to his military aide on a trip overseas. The two became friends, and families gathered for a picnic in the courtyard of the Bidens.

Cindy McCain was not expected to offer explicit endorsement, but her involvement in the video is her biggest public show of support to date for Biden’s candidacy. McCain was the 2008 Republican presidential candidate against Democrat Barack Obama, who won the election with Biden as the vice-presidential candidate.

When McCain died on a Saturday in 2018, the Trump administration lowered the American flag above the White House to half the staff, but then raised it on Monday. After the public outcry, the flags of the White House were once again lowered. Trump was not invited to McCain’s funeral.

Powell drew anger on social media Tuesday night for his role in the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq under the assumption that then-dictator Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction.

Powell said Biden “will trust our diplomats and our intelligence community, not the flattery of dictators and despots.” Trump has expressed doubts about the intelligence community’s findings on Russia’s involvement in the 2016 campaign and praised the dictators.

Powell also lamented that “today we have a country divided, and we have a president who is doing everything in his power to make us this way, to keep us this way.”

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Here is the full text of Powell’s remarks:

“Hi. I’m former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

“A hundred years ago, a young immigrant left a farm in Jamaica and left for America.

“Three years later a ship arrived in New York Harbor and a young Jamaican woman looked at the Statue of Liberty for the first time. They became my parents, and they inspired me to finish college and join the military.

“It started a journey of service that took me from basic combat training in Vietnam, up through the ranks to become Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State.

“The values ​​I learned growing up in the South Bronx and serving in uniform were the same values ​​Joe Biden’s parents instilled in him in Scranton, PA. I support Joe Biden for the Presidency of the United States because those values ​​still define him, and we must restore those values ​​to the White House.

“Our country needs a Commander-in-Chief who takes care of our troops as he would for his own family. For Joe Biden, that doesn’t need to be taught. It comes from the experience he shares with millions of military families – sending his beloved son to war and praying to God that he will come home safe and sound.

“Joe Biden will be a president we will all be proud to salute. With Joe Biden in the White House, you will never doubt that he will stand alongside our friends and resist our adversaries – never the other way around.

“He will trust our diplomats and our intelligence community, not the flattery of dictators and despots. He will make a point of knowing when someone dares to threaten us. He will resist our adversaries with strength and experience. They will know he is serious.

“I support Joe Biden because on day one he will restore American leadership and our moral authority. He will be a president who knows America is strongest when, as he said, ‘We lead both by the power of our example and by the example of our power. It will restore America’s leadership in the world and restore the alliances we need to deal with the dangers that threaten our nation, from climate change to nuclear proliferation.

“Today we are a divided country, and we have a president who is doing everything in his power to make it happen and keep us that way. What a difference it will make to have a president who unites us, who restores our strength and our soul. I still believe that in our hearts we are the same America that brought my parents to our shores, an America that inspires freedom in the world. This is the America that Joe Biden will lead as the next president. Thank you so much.”