in uniform. >> reporter: after a distinguished 35-year career, powell retired from the army in 1993. ten years later, the united states would become involved in another gulf war and powell again played a key role. >> my colleagues, every statement i make today is backed up by sources, solid sources. these are not assertions. what we're giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence. >> reporter: then secretary of state powell made a case in front of the u.n. security council arguing that iraq posed a grave threat to the world because they said they had weapons of mass destruction. the following month, the u.s. invasion began. the war lasted more than eight years, no weapons of mass destruction ever turned up. >> i regret it now because the information was wrong. >> reporter: after four years as president george w. bush's secretary of state, powell returned to private life. he spent his civilian years empowering youth, promise alliance and the colin powell school for civic and global leadership. >> we're going to educate the kids who are most in need and when i heard their stories, i said this is where i belong. i'm home again. >> reporter: general colin powell, a leader and a patriot, who devoted a life time to service. >> and a trailblazer. i'm joined by retired general mark hurtling. general, i appreciate you being with us. you knew colin powell. tell me about the man. >> well, john, what i have to say, wolf's piece just now was very heartwrenching. he was a terrific soldier, a phenomenal leader, and what i'll tell you is, i was a young major when he was the chairman of the joint chiefs and our unit was tagged before christmas to go to desert storm, a surprise announced on cnn by general powell and secretary cheney at the time and all the spouses would tell you that they trusted general powell. we went off to war and give his briefings as the chairman what was going on he was succinct and understood a soldier's course, he knew the strategy involved in operation desert storm and we relied on the first broadcast over cnn but beyond that, he was also the commander of fifth corps in europe when the cold war was still going on. he was commander of forces command in the united states, which is all the forces in the u.s. army that are stationed in the united states. this guy rose through the ranks and as wolf said in his piece, an african-american against all odds, a non-west point graduate who rose to the top of his profession because he was such a great student of military history, but also someone who understood the government more than most. >> of that generation that served in vietnam and whose vietnam experience no doubt colored the rest of his military career and how we thought about things and as you point out, not only did he command in europe, he was chair of the joint chiefs during the involvement in panama, and then desert storm and desert shield. >> right. >> which were key transformative moments after vietnam for the u.s. military. >> you bring up a great point, john. i came in at the end of the vietnam war. i was at west point when we stopped sending soldiers there, so i never served in vietnam but i know general powell's generation, don starry, dennis rhymer, julius becton, i could go on and on of the general officers who cut their teeth in vietnam. i realized what they had to do to rebuild the army and they did so in a period of time in the '80s and early '90s, and it was shown their efforts were shown during just cause in panama, desert storm. these were the individuals that really looked at how to modernize an army, change the doctrine, change the training, change the personnel. it was just phenomenal and certainly he was a guy that experienced, i'm going to go back to the racial discrimination in his book, his autobiography, he talks about reporting as a new lieutenant to ft. benning, georgia, where they couldn't get housing on post because he was an african-american. the army transpired and transformed through those years into the great organization it is today and as wolf also said, he developed the powell doctrine, which we should really relook today which says don't go into a war unless you have overwhelming force, number one, and number two, you have an exit strategy, you know how you're going to get out. we've seemed to ignore that over the last several decades. >> general powell also had the ear of several presidents, from ronald reagan, national security adviser, george h.w. bush, when he was chair of the joint chiefs, still for bill clinton as chair of the joint chiefs overseeing for a period of time the don't ask don't tell transformation and secretary of state for george w. bush. so influence othever decades of american leadership. >> it won't be mentioned a lot, he was a white house fellow. as a younger officer, it's a program that very few get to go to. he was pulled into the white house and i think worked at office of management and budget and he learned several lessons that he taught my generation. when you come to the pentagon or when you deal with the other services or with congress, you have to influence them with their language. i remember him telling me one time, he said you know, you have to make, you have to learn to describe your problems in a way that others can understand that are not in the army. don't make your problems, think that your problems and your charges are the biggest things that are going to affect congress. you have to talk to them in your, in their voice to help influence them to help you solve some of your challenges. that's the kind of mentor he was. i remember one time working with general freddy franks and we were called up to general powell's office, this was when the war in kosovo and albania was going on. general franks was asked by general powell to lay out maps and what are the problems going into bosnia at the time and general franks and i were crawling around the floor of his office. he gave me a coin afterwards but this is the kind of guy he was. he wanted the details of europe. he wanted the details of the world and he listened closely to his sbard nationals. he mentored general franks and dealt with the characteristics of a guy like general schwarzkopf. powell was a great leader. he pulled different kinds of people together and during desert storm, he was one of the individuals who pulled a coalition together. there were jordanians and egyptians fighting on the same battle we were when we invaded iraq to reestablish the boundaries of kuwait. that's the individual military and political that he was, a perfect pick for the chairman of the joint chiefs. >> also a fairly unique figure in american history. there are people for whom there is a genuine movement to get that person to run for president and then have that person refuse to do so. after retired as chairman of the joint chiefs in 1993, for the 1996 election there were all kinds of people who wanted him to run for president, really run for president and urged and urged and urged him to run but he didn't do it and again in 2000 they urged him to run and he didn't do it. that's a heck of a thing to have people tell you they want you to run and say no. >> he saw the office of the president as being one of politics primarily. certainly looking forward to the country as a statesman, and he was a true not only a great military leader but i would almost put him in the category of being a terrific political statesman because he understood government. he and his wife knew the headaches involved, he could potentially serve in other ways. he was tagged as you said earlier to be the secretary of state under the second bush administration, where truthfully he faltered, giving the intelligence to the u.n. and he's told so many people this, that that was the worst moment of his career, the biggest mistake of his career, but then he recovered afterwards and gave back to the country through his dynamic youth organizations, where he pulled people together to create a leadership opportunity for the next generation. he wanted to be a statesman and help our country but he didn't feel he could enter the political arena, probably because he saw the caustic nature that was occurring at the time. >> he was a leader no matter what job title he held. general mark hertling, i certainly appreciate your insight and we're sorry for the someone who served as a mentor. >> it's horrible for our country, john. thank you. >> brianna? >> wolf blitzer is on the phone with us now. wolf, we just watched your very touching story about the life of colin powell, and i also am just wondering how are you reflecting on this? you became a household name covering the gulf war. he became a household name overseeing operation desert storm. >> it's so bad, brianna, because i did cover him for so many years and i got to know him. i got to know him well. we spent a lot of time together over these years various wars, but also non-wars, because what he was doing after he left office was really so incredibly important and i got to see that up close. my earliest remembrance was in 1990-'91, cnn's pentagon correspondent during operation desert shield and then operation desert storm. he was chairman of the joint chiefs and he was just always available to help us reporters at the pentagon better appreciate what was going on, the enormity of saddam hussein's invasion of kuwait, what that meant and how the united states was going to liberate kuwait. it took months, september, october, november, december. finally in january the war began. by the end of february it was over, kuwait had been liberated and i remember his words when that war started in january, 1991, he said "first we're going to cut it off and then we're going to kill it." he was so powerful, so smart, and such a wonderful human being. i'm sure, like so many other journalists who covered him, i'm very sad to hear the news that's now passed away, and my deepest, deepest condolences to his loving family and his friends, and as we say, may he rest in peace and may his memory be a blessing. >> his contributions as a trailblazer, wolf, are going from as we just heard from general hertling unable to get housing on post at ft. benning because he was black to being the first black secretary of state, the first black chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. this is someone who cleared the road for so many behind him >> he certainly did. he was so strong in asserting the role he obviously had as a leader and as someone who could really make a difference in the u.s. military and he was so proud of the u.s. army. he was a product of the u.s. army, was so inspirational and so forthcoming in removing those barriers to minorities and african-americans, hispanics and others, and you could really get ahead in the u.s. army, whether you were white or black or whatever, and he showed that, and so many other generals now can thank african-american generals in particular can thank colin powell for the leadership he showed. lloyd austin, now the secretary of defense, african-american. it was colin powell who worked to create that opportunity and i remember personally eyewitnessing it all the time how he did it, how he commanded respect in his leadership as chairman of the joint chiefs, then as secretary of state for that matter, but he was just a wonderful, wonderful human being and i think all of us are going to miss him tremendously. it's so sad that he has now passed away and i see the headline on cnn, on the screen, "general colin powell dies at 84 of covid complications" it's such a sad, tragic moment. >> we know the number of how many americans have died from coronavirus and his family pointing out that he was fully vaccinated, but he died due to complications from covid-19. i think, wolf, it really punctuates the cost of coronavirus to this country, right? >> right. >> so many people and here we see someone with such a legacy, one of all these people who we've lost. >> and the military plays such an incredibly important role in our lives in protecting our country and securing all of us and the young men and women who risk their lives, who volunteer, no draft anymore, they volunteer to serve in the u.s., as you personally know, brianna, from your own family, they do amazing work for us, and they look to leadership like general colin powell to inspire them. i'm sure he played just by being where he was and saying what he was saying, doing what he was doing, i think he inspired so many young men and women to enlist and volunteer to serve our nation and to risk their own lives to get the job done, to secure us, and that always came through to me when i was watching him, and especially i would go out with him to various u.s. military bases around the u.s. and indeed around the world and he would always make a point to speak to the young troops and answer questions and get them involved and hear his story, and it was such a powerful story, such a wonderful opportunity to get these people inspired to do what they had to do, and look, the first gulf war, then the war in iraq, the war in afghanistan, all of that was so sad in many respects because so many young men and women were killed and so many young americans came home without limbs, and are suffering to this date from post traumatic stress and shock and he did what he certainly thought was the right thing at the time. he acknowledged later as you heard there were no serious weapons of mass destruction in iraq, and that was an intelligence blunder that the u.s. had and he admitted that, he acknowledged that, and he moved on from that to try to make sure that we learn from those mistakes, so that we don't repeat them down the road. >> i think that's part of leadership, wolf, where he did make a mistake. he will forever be remembered for that moment before the u.n., but also the way that he handled that later, admitting that he had made a mistake, and also how he evolved even politically as well, this was someone who would, you know, speak out when they felt that it was necessary on what he thought was very important to the country. he did that as well, even recently, when it came to politics. >> right. and you know, he made it clear that, yes, you know, he was a republican, but he was certainly not going to support donald trump when he was running for president, or bid for re-election. he was very, very patriotic in that sense. he was going to do what he felt was really right for the country. you know, in the past several months, i didn't know -- i've invited him on my show, i'm sure you have as well, many times, but he was, you know, reluctant to come on for whatever reason, but now we're beginning to appreciate he may have been suffering from some health related issues in recent months, and that may have been a factor and then the covid complications, obviously were the end result of all of that. it's just a sad story and as i look back, brianna, on all of the interviews i did on cnn with general powell, and i always called him general powell even though he was secretary of state, the former pentagon correspondent for me, covered him when he was the chairman of the joint chiefs he was always general powell, he knew that and we spoke about it and he was proud of the fact that he was a united states general, retired u.s. general. he was also proud of the fact that he was a former secretary of state, but i always referred to him as general powell, not mr. secretary. because that's where i got to know him, and it's just heartbreaking to see that he has passed away, because like so many not just journalists but americans, we're going to miss him tremendously. he was an inoperation, a powerful figure, and just a wonderful guy. he loved joking around, he loved having fun. we spoke about, you know, growing -- he was growing up at the bronx, and it was just a wonderful opportunity that i had as a journalist. i was grateful to be a journalist, to be able to cover someone like him. >> wolf, thank you so much. we really appreciate you lending your voice to this today, as this country says good-bye to general colin powell, as you are someone who covered him so closely. thank you. >> thank you. we're joined by jamey gangelle who covered a number of presidential administrations and jamie, as we noted, colin powell, general powell was someone who had the ear of several different presidents, and someone who can truly be considered, really almost in his own category a true statesman to whom so many around the country looked up to. i remember being in the room when he endorsed george w. bush for president when he was then governor of texas and there was no question who had the greater stature at that point. everyone in the room was looking and i'm sure george w. bush would say the same thing was looking up to colin powell in that room. >> you know, john, it's interesting that you say that, because my first memory of colin powell is when he was working in the reagan administration, and he came in to work on the national security staff. he was very young in his career then but even then, he was larger than life. he really had a presence, a charisma about him i heard from his long time chief of staff peggy safrino who just sent me a note that said that they are all heartbroken understandably. he touched so many lives and my phone is just, you know, being inundated with texts of people from the pentagon, from the state department, former white house people, former central intelligence agency officials who worked with him over the years are just absolutely in shock over this. i always called him general powell and i interviewed him a couple years ago because we were preparing a documentary about former president george h.w. bush, and i was just looking back at that interview, and he was talking about the days leading up to "dez are the storm" and he said to me, "i don't like war, and if we can avoid war, we avoid war." but he wanted to make sure he had a clear understanding of what it would take and what the mission would be, and that just resonates with me, because once he had the mission, he was all in, but i remember time and time again his saying that, you know, he wanted diplomacy. he was hoping everything else would work, but that once he knew what his mission was, he was all in, and forgive me, i'm just speechless. he was as wolf just described, he was someone we really got to know over the years, his sense of humor, always first thing you saw the smile on his face, and he was also very generous with young reporters, explaining things, taking time being available, and it's just a tragic loss. >> kindness matters. i can hear it in your voice and i can hear it in wolf's. i didn't cover him nearly as closely as either of you, but in my interactions with him, it was the same thing, someone generous of spirit really does shine through, a very long career that covered all kinds of different administrations, but i suppose in some ways, the two pinnacles of his service were in the george h.w. bush administration, as you said, as chair of the joint chiefs during "desert storm" and secretary of state under george w. bush during september 11th, to during the invasions of iraq and afghanistan. talk about the evolution between the two administrations, jamie. >> so i think one of the things that is true, and this is true of lots of people in washington, he was very ambitious. he wanted to be secretary of state. i think it was very important to him. i talked to him over the years about whether he might even run for president, and he considered that and his wife, al ma, did nt want him to do that, and i think that had a big -- that was the deciding factor in the end, but one of the things i just want to mention, as we talk about the evolution of his career is also the evolution of his public political career, and that is that he was a republican, but in these last years, he spoke out very early about former president donald trump, and he was very clear about that, and made went public when a lot of people did not go public. when you talk about the difference between serving bush 41 and bush 43, as we discussed earlier in the show, obviously the weapons of mass destruction, his appearance in front of the u.n., putting his credibility on the line, backing up the policy to go back in was the thing that will be most memorable from this second bush administration. but as we saw in wolf's obituary, when he was asked about it later on, he said simply and straightforward, as he would always do "i made a mistake." >> which is rare. it is rare to see that in washington, rare to see that from someone of his stature and politically, you talk about the political evolution and it's something that i think is forgotten now, because it has become accepted, he endorsed barack obama before his first election, when john mccain was the republican nominee, so here you have colin powell, who to some extent is the bastian, symbolic figurehead of the military republican establishment. he endorsed barack obama in 2008. >> correct. the thing to remember about colin powell he was very much a centrist, whether in the republican party or when he left the republican party in the end because of donald trump. when he endorsed barack obama, i'm not sure it was a difficult decision for him, because he saw it as a moment and i talked to him afterwards, there wasn't a question in his mind that he would endorse barack obama. i think that the other thing to keep in mind is that i always wondered when barack obama won, how colin powell felt about it, because so many people thought that he might be the first african-american president, john. i want to on a personal note add one thing. the last interview i did with him, which was about former president bush 41, we usually saw colin powell as we calm, even. in that interview, he actually broke down and cried when he talked about bush 41, and about what that group was like, the top officials working together but they had a special relationship because he had worked with former president bush from the time former president bush was vice president and he told me that he had made some mistakes along the way, and that former president bush said to him "don't worry about it" and he really looked up to him and i think always felt that he learned a tremendous amount from him about leadership. >> no doubt. i think george h.w. bush would say he learned a lot from colin powell as well. >> true. >> they learned a lot from each other. jamie gangel i appreciate you sharing your memories and reporting with us. >> thank you, john. i'm joined by cnn senior political analyst john avlon. two things jamie touched on them. if you were not there in 1996, it is easy to forget, how many people wanted colin powell to run for president? this wasn't some groundswell. there was a serious concerted movement to get him to run and all we to do was say yes. i don't know if he would have won, but he would have been a formidable candidate. >> the polling suggested he would have won and it's not a stretch to say american history would have been fundamentally different. he was a man whose integrity became an avatar for what he called the sensible center in american politics, something that seems increasingly lost, but because he came out of that non-partisan military tradition, and he was a problem solver first, a patriot who always put country over party, through his decisions and n recent years to leave the republican party over donald trump and what he called his constant lies, that power was self-evident and had a direct appeal to independent voters in particular. no redos, he decide the no to run. american history would have been very different. what he did at every step of his career is really be a strong voice for that sensible center, for bringing people together and a lot of the wisdom he articulated from the powell doctrine in the military, which i think has been validated by recent history, overwhelming force clear national interest clear exit strategy and rules for leadership to a book i keep by my bed, he talks about the importance of remaining calm and being kind and how optimism is a force multiplier. these are real lessons and gifts he gave generations of americans in addition to the arc of his own life that i think gave evidence that the american dream was still very much real. >> he's the walking embodiment of the american dream growing up in the bronx, not west point. >> son of immigrants. >> chairman of the joint chiefs and secretary of state. you talked politically what might have happened had he won. politics left colin powell, though. that center -- >> republican party did. >> -- that he stood for doesn't exist anymore in quite the same fashion. maybe he saw that. maybe he saw he couldn't play or didn't want to play in this new reality. >> i think what he saw was it wasn't john mccain. it was sarah palin, the right drift of the republican party, the tea party, you said his endorsement of barack obama and also joe biden. seeing in those leaders a continuation of that tradition from george h.w. bush and the politics of even brent scowcroft of the national security side which had been left by the republican party a long time ago but colin powell remains steadfast even as the republican party moved further right. >> i want people to know, colin powell, there was never a room that colin powell was in at least that i was anywhere near or covering where people weren't looking to him. he was the guy that everyone in the room was turning to, to find out what he thought about something and that goes from interns to journalists, to presidents. >> and he was so generous, he was a real wise man. i remember as a college student, he gave a bunch of college students time on a pentagon tour, and he was so incredibly thoughtful with a real sweep of history, but he was a genuine wise man of american politics and he had the charisma of competence, and that self-evident integrity that is something that we need endless amounts of in a self-governing society. >> we need colin powell. we do more than ever, at least the ideas that he espoused. john avlon, thank you very much. again, the news this morning, general colin powell, former secretary of state, a pioneer in so many ways, has passed away at the age of 84, complications from covid. we're finding out more information. we're going to take a quick break. much more of our special coverage next. they do things differently. yeah, it's wireless with unlimited data and if you join a group it's as low as $25/mo. all powered by verizon. 5g included. woo! just get together and save! we look goooood! what's everyone's handle? visible. unlimited data, as low as $25/mo all-in. powered by verizon, 5g included. wireless that gets better with friends. ♪ i see trees 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former president george w. bush. he says "laura and i are deeply saddened by the death of colin powell. he was a great public servant starting with his time as a soldier during vietnam. many presidents relied on general powell's counsel and experience. he was national security adviser under president reagan, chairin' ma of the joint chiefs of staff under my father, and president clinton, and secretary of state during my administration. he was such a favorite of presidents that he earned the presidential medal of freedom twice. he was highly respected at home and abroad, and most important, colin was a family man and a friend. laura and i send alma and their children our sincere condolences as they remember the life of a great man." we're joined now by retired air force colonel cedric leyton and i know that you have a reflection, when you were a young captain. you had an interaction with colin powell. >> i sure did, brianna. good morning, and it's absolutely a sad day this country has lost a great leader like colin powell. i met him when he was in special operations command. he came down to do the retirement ceremony for our commander in chief, general carl steiner, another american hero, and he gave this amazing speech, general powell did, that i still remember today, talking about general steiner's tennessee roots, and how he was able to go from basically nothing to a four-star general in the army and the way he did it was just so amazing. he was a wordsmith. he was a warm person who was able to put together not only a great turn of phrase but also to show the empathy that he had for fellow general officer, but that empathy also transcended rank. it transcended not only the general officer ranks but it came down to people like me, i was at the time a very young captain, my very first dealings with him were actually before that, in a message that i had written as the very first thing i did in a new job i had down there at special operations command and a few years later i was able to see that message, the copy that the chairman had received and it had the initial cp on it, and cp that colin powell himself had seen it so i knew i had a little bit of an impact on a decision that general powell made and he was one of those people that you were proud to serve and that was i think his lasting legacy for us in the military. >> yes, look, he's someone who was iconic as we are remembering the contributions of him to our nation today, a trailblazer in so many ways and also colonel, he was a warrior diplomat, right? the fact that he was chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, someone with a storied military career and then he went on to be secretary of state, the intersection of diplomacy and defense. >> yes, and i think the only parallel that we have in modern american history to the achievements of general powell would be general george marshall from world war ii who was also the chief of staff of the army during world war ii but then he became secretary of defense and secretary of state and that kind of leader, someone who can work well in the military realm and diplomatic realm was something that those of us who touched those spheres of american power, we emulated that, we thought that was the best model to follow, and general powell i think refined the model from general marshall and did it in such a way that modernized that and unionized it. general powell you'd get a fair hearing and shall able to follow any direction he gave because he was first and foremost a great leader and wonderful human being. that permeated everything you did with him and he was genuinely a great soldier and a great statesman. >> we know that colin powell was the first african-american chairman of the joint chiefs of staff but i was remembered, going back through his bio, he was also the youngest. also the fact that he brought his youth to his roles. >> absolutely. admiral he replaced who served as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff before general powell came to that position he was far older, i think in his late 60s by the time he retired from his chairmanship as the chairman of the joint chiefs. and he brought youth in a role that could be seen as a province of stodgy, old men. general powell was not stodgy and not old. he was one of those people who could take a problem and dissect it in a way that made it manageable and everybody who served with him benefitted from his abilities that way. even to serve him from a distance, that was i think one of the greatest legacies of general powell's life and it was the fact that he did that for so many people in the military. >> colonel, thank you so much, as we reflect on the legacy of colin powell on this day where we have learned that he has passed away at the age of 84. colonel, thank you again. john? >> you bet, brianna. >> joining me is charley dent, former republican congressman. charlie, i appreciate you being with us. you can't say this about everyone. this is a loss for america. the death of colin powell is a loss for america. >> john, absolutely. this man was not only a statesman but he was a titan. you think about it, given his life story, he came from a modest background, rising to the highest levels in uniform military, secretary of state. i had the opportunity to meet with him on a few occasions, lexed to congress in 2004 and after secretary of state i remember being in a meeting with him and we'd pick his brain to get his world stru, just to get his thoughts. he was one of those people you knew you were in the presence of an awesome man and there was such a respect for this elder statesman. and it's a big loss. >> charlie, stand by for a minute, if you can. christiane amanpour joins me right now and christiane, obviously you covered events for colin powell, was a central player for decades, and we're not saying he was perfect. he himself acknowledged some of the mistakes he made, particularly in 2003, but the role he played and the influence he had over decades, it's hard to match in american history. >> well, i think that's true, and it's for both good and potentially not so good, as you've all indicated. there are two sides to this guy who actually was a titan and was a giant. he was the youngest ever chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, appointed by president george h.w. bush in '89, and he was the first african-american, the first black official officer to become and to hold that high, high office, and then of course, as you know, he went on to hold higher office and eventually secretary of state under george w. bush. i first came across colin powell when i did my first war coverage, which was in the first gulf war, so "operation desert shield" and then "operation desert storm." you know, because it's written all over the obit that at first he was extremely cautious, and the powell doctrine became known as a doctrine of caution, and he really became the architect of unless you can have overwhelming force on the ground, then we don't really want to go there as americans. the first gulf war proved the doctrine of overwhelming force was a successful one. a u.s.-led coalition of some 500,000 allied troops that gathered under "operation desert shield" in the saudi sand, and went after saddam hussein, who had invaded kuwait in 1990 and successfully drove him out. this included armies from places like syria which are now not allies of the united states. the problem with that is that when it then came to wars that were smaller and not as massive, it didn't involve a leader invading another leader but nonetheless, massively important to the united states such as bosnia, which i also covered. colin powell's caution and his refusal tone gauge militarily to drive back the bosnian serbs, committing ethnic cleansing and genocide, that led to a delay by the united states and allied forces in stopping this genocide and led to potentially three-year delay and therefore we sueaw morals questioned and shaky for the first time because it didn't intervene to stop a genocide until it was late and the genocide had already happened in 1995. finally, when they did intervene, they did actually stop the bosnian surge and the united states used its dip diplomatic heft to create or rather convene all sides to have the date and peace accords that as you know led to what is still an enduring peace. i believe colin powell wouldn't have approved of the intervention in kosovo or even the uk intervention in sierra leone also in the '90s which did prevent a genocide and did put the two countries back on a road that was one of peace and the ability to move forward without the horrors that we witnessed in bosnia. so he's a very complicated figure who operated as the highest levels of american power and influence, and then of course and you probably all discussed this a lot, his reputation then took a major beating when he was the moral face of the w. bush administration and went to the security council, if you remember, with that bag of white powder and put his name on the line, and his face on a policy trying to go to war against saddam hussein again to prevent him from having weapons of mass destruction. turned out he didn't have weapons of mass destruction at that time and colin powell unfortunately, this was one of his lasting legacies that he had put his good name to what we now know to be a false policy built on some very spacious, what is the right word, some very spacious gathering and interpreting of intelligence to basically prove a point that the administration wanted to make. so very complicated figure who i had the opportunity to interview many times and ask him many of these questions, but yes, he's going to be missed in terms of the real sort of questions about what american power is for and very famously had an encounter with madeleine albright. she said to him, what is the point of having this fantastic military if we cannot deploy it in really important cases. colin powell in his memoir responded, i nearly had an aneurysm, apparently a heated debate among the principles, the national security principals and said american soldiers are not toy soldiers to be moved around a global game board, and that was his position. that was his position and sadly led to as much good. the consequences in bosnia and a moral failure in iraq. >> christiane amanpour reflecting on the long legacy and career of colin powell in service to this nation and how he's seen in the united states and truly ampd the world. thank you so much for being with us. i'm joined by anina mcbride who worked in different roles inside the bush administration, including for colin powell at the state department. i appreciate you being with us. i am sorry for your loss and for the loss of the country. if you will, reflect on general powell that you knew. >> thank you very much for the opportunity to say a word about this incredible, larger than life figure in american history, and frankly in world history. he was respected for his counsel and steady hand and he cared about the life and career of the people under his command, whether that was in the military or in the civilian and foreign service capacity of the diplomatic role that he held at the state department, and that really was a care and nurturing and care and feeding of the people who served the country that everyone knew, and as a white house liaison at the state department, working with the secretary and his team on presidential appointments, he really did care about people who would manage their teams well, and would respect them and i'll always admire that. i was just recently at the bush 41 library in college station and looking at the exhibits. the presence of colin powell was was enormous for president bush 41 as well, a steady hand through the gulf war when he was at national security office but then also at dod. so it just felt over many decades, his presence and an example that i think others in the military and in the civil service will always look up to. >> it's interesting, could you look at any exhibit that covers american history from the '80s, '90s or early 2000s and it would have to include something on general powell, because he played such a major role in u.s. history over decades. >> yes, he did. and his presence, walking through the west wing of the white house reagan days to the state department at the george w. bush days. it was a person who you knew you were in the presence of a deeply committed, you know, servant to the country, and it's to be admired and i think we all feel his loss, but look to that example. >> he was already larger than life by the time he served in the george w. bush administration, had already worked several careers and had several roles of enormous influence. how was he perceived during that administration, almost not an island onto himself, but someone for whom was held in great esteem. >> um-hum. no, sure. well listen, when you are, he was helping president bush lead the country, make decisions in a time of great peril and great challenge to our country. unprecedented attack on our country, and the president valued his presence and his stature. ultimately the president has to make the decisions, and maybe they're not always the ones that all his advisers agree on, but that doesn't diminish that his counsel that general powell's counsel and his experience and his advice was not valued. so i don't think any of us that had the privilege of working with secretary powell, general powell would ever question his integrity, and the frankness of his advice. >> it was truly a life time of service. >> a great american story. a great american story of the ranks to which he rose in our serving our country. it's really a great loss. >> anita mcbride, thank you for your comments this morning. sorry for your loss. >> thank you. >> sorry for the loss the united states of america suffers by the passing of colin powell. >> they also benefitted from him, too, and that's the good point. >> that is. >> thank you. >> i'm going to play the moment that general powell endorsed joe biden. it happened on cnn, this was in june of 2020, just after donald trump held up that bible in lafayette square. watch this. >> i'm very happy what general allen said and all the other generals, admirals are saying and diplomats are saying. we have a constitution and we have to follow that constitution and the president's drifted away from it. i'm so proud of what the generals and admirals and others have done but you know, i didn't write a letter because i made my point with respect to trump's performance some four years ago when he was running for office and when i heard some of the things he was saying, it made it clear i could not possibly vote for this individual. the first thing that troubled me is the whole birthers movement and birthers movement had to do with the fact that the president of the united states, president obama was a black man, that was part of it and i was deeply troubled by the way he was going around insulting everybody, insulting gold star mothers, insuddening john mccain and insulting immigrants and i'm the son of immigrants, insulting anybody who dared to speak against him that, is dangerous for our democracy and dangerous for our country and i think what we're seeing now the massive protest movement i have ever seen in my life, i think it suggests that the country is getting wise to this and we're not going to put up with it anymore. >> former defense secretary general manus said "donald trump is the first president in my life time who does not try to unite the american people, does not even pretend to try, instead he tries to divide us." sounds like you agree with that. >> you have to agree with it. look at what he has done to divide us. forget immigrants. let's put up a fence in mexico. forget this, let's do this. he is insulting us throughout the world. is he being offensive to our allies. he is not taking into account what our foreign policy is and how it's being affected by his actions, so yes, i agree with general allen and i agree with all of my former colleagues and remember, i've been out of the military now for 25 years and so i'm watching it closely, they were all junior officers when i left and proud of what they're doing, proud they were willing to take the risk of speaking honestly and speaking truth to those who are not speaking truth. i couldn't vote for him in '96 and i certainly cannot in any way support president trump this year. >> so i know you didn't vote for him in 2016. i assume based on the fact that you approved joe biden when then senator obama picked him to be his running mate in 2008, i assume you're going to be voting for joe biden? >> i'm very close to joe biden in a social matter and on a political matter. i worked with him for 35, 40 years and he is now the candidate and i will be voting for him. >> you could see how angry general powell was about what was going on during the trump administration. >> i don't think those were comments made lightly but he believed strongly in protecting the independence of the military, something that has been challenged so much here recently in years and integral to the stability of our country. i do want to get to dr. jonathan reiner. this is a reminder of how much covid has taken from us. he was fully vaccinated, dr. reiner and still died from covid complications. >> right. first of all, my condolences to general powell's family. he was a role model for everyone in this country. we've lost almost three-quarters of a million people in this country and our most vulnerable americans still remain vulnerable, which is why we need to continue to try to vaccinate the 20% of adults who now are eligible but continue to refuse to protect themselves and their communities. we've lost our parents, our grandparents, and our brothers and sisters and even horribly our children. there are few americans now who don't know somebody who has succumbed to this virus, and we need to finally come together as a country, link our arms, and put this virus away. we can do it. we have the ability to do it. we have incredibly safe and effective vaccines that can prevent people from dying. no one needs to die anymore. my heart breaks for general powell's family, and for the almost 750,000 other families who have suffered this kind of loss and all those who have known them. >> dr. reiner, we thank you for being with us this morning. we'll lean on you throughout the day and reminder, severe breakthrough cases of covid are rare but expected especially among seniors. our special coverage on the passing of general colin powell continues right now. good monday morning. i'm erica hill. we begin with breaking news. >> i'm jim sciutto. breaking in us this morning, sad news, general colin powell, the barrier-breaking former secretary of state as well as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff during war time has died of complications fro

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