Big names are coming out against voting for Trump in November

Men who have served their country and have the respect of the whole American nation are now coming out and publicly saying they cannot vote for Donald Trump. The latest voice to be added to the growing list of significant individuals is retired General Colin Powell, former secretary of state and ex-chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. He was frequently referred to as a potential candidate for the White House but his wife and family wisely advised him against running. He is a big name and today he has made it clear he cannot vote for Trump, and supports past colleagues, such as Jim Mattis, for criticising the president. I don't know whether Colin Powell is viewed by all voters as a distinguished servant of the nation but I think most Americans would regard him with respect, admiration and even affection. If he says Trump should not be reelected in November, will that make a difference? I suspect it might do if the election was next week but by November there will be louder voices making all the noise, and Powell's restrained but eloquent reasons for opposing Trump may well be forgotten. But now we have, among others, Powell, Mattis and Admiral William McRaven, former commander of Joint Special Operations Command and in charge of the operation that killed Osama bin Laden. All of them have voiced their dismay over Trump's style of leadership and in particular his handling of the protests following the death in police custody of George Floyd. The sad thing is that Trump has reacted to their criticism with insults and demeaning comments. He derided Mattis as an overrated general and referred to Colin Powell as "a real stiff" - whatever that means - and said he was "very responsible" for getting the US into the "disastrous" war in Iraq. It is true of course that Powell, as secretary of state under President George W Bush, told the United Nations in February 2003 that Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction and he referred to an intelligence report (a British one ) that the Iraqi dictator had acquired yellow cake, a lightly refined uranium ore for enriching into weapons-grade nuclear fuel. BUt Powell was not alone in believing Saddam was developing nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. Pretty well everyone in the universe did, including UN weapons inspectors. But, for Trump, it was an easy jibe to hurl at Powell. But Powell is still an icon from the era that embraced three presidents, George HW Bush and George W Bush and Bill Clinton. He cannot be dismissed because he and everyone else made a terrible mistake about weapons of mass destruction that didn't exist. If he and Mattis and co are convinced Trump is a bad president then there may will be a growing number of Republicans who will think the same. We know of two already, Senator Mitt Romney and Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska who revealed that she is struggling over whether to vote for Trump. I still think, despite these big-name opponents, and despite the bewildering array of contradictory measures to control the pandemic and the volatile rhetoric from the president over the George Floyd issue, Trump's Democratic rival Joe Biden will have to raise his game spectacularly if he wants to beat Trump in November.