Colin Powell says Trump's foreign policy 'is in shambles,' Republican Party needs to 'get a grip'

close

Video

President Trump's announcement of US troop withdrawal from Syria shocks military officials

The surprise news by the White House, announced after a phone call with the Turkish president, essentially greenlighted a Turkish invasion of Syria; national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin reports from Washington.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell slammed President Trump, saying that his foreign policy "is in shambles" -- and telling Republicans they must "get a grip."

Powell mentioned his work for previous presidents during an appearance Sunday on CNN. "I was a Republican who was Ronald Reagan’s national security advisor. I was a Republican who worked for George Herbert Walker Bush, and worked for George W. Bush."

He continued, "I’m a moderate Republican who believes that we should have strong foreign policy, strong defense policy, that we have to look out for our people and we ought to work hard to make sure we’re one country and one team. And so, on that basis, I call myself a Republican."

But, when asked by CNN host Fareed Zakaria if the GOP was putting President Trump "over the country," Powell took issue with his party.

ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI: TRUMP IS A 'TRAITOR TO THE UNITED STATES'

Video

“The Republican Party has got to get a grip on itself," he said. "Right now, Republican leaders and members of the Congress, in both the Senate and in the House, are holding back because they’re terrified of what will happen to any one of them if they speak out.

"Will they lose a primary? I don’t know why that’s such a disaster, but will they lose a primary? And so, they need to get a grip, and when they see things that are not right, they need to say something about it, because our foreign policy is in shambles right now, in my humble judgment."

Powell then pointed to the controversy surrounding the Sharpie-drawn arc over Alabama in a map of Hurricane Dorian's projected path, something he said was "hard to understand."

"In my time, one of us would have gone to the president and said, 'Mr. President, you screwed up, so we've got to fix it and we'll put out a correction.' You know what they did this time? They ordered the Commerce Department to go out and back up whatever the president [said]," the former top Bush official continued.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

"This is not the way the country's supposed to run, and Congress is one of the institutions that should be doing something about this, all parts of Congress. The media has a role to play, we all have a role to play.

"You’ve got to remember that all these pieces are a part of our government. The executive branch, Congress, Supreme Court, and of the Fourth Estate, and we've got to remember that the Constitution started with, 'We the People,' not 'Me the President.'"