Hacked emails of former US secretary of State Colin Powell reveal that he called former Vice President Dick Cheney an “idiot”. In private emails leaked on Tuesday seen by BuzzFeed News, Powell slammed his former Bush Administration colleague because of his book, written along with his daughter.

“They are idiots and spent force peddling a book that ain’t going nowhere,” Powell said. The leaked email was written to a former White House chief of staff to President Ronald Regan, Kenneth Duberstein. Powell was criticizing the Cheney’s’ September 2015 book, Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America.

When asked about the emails, Powell told BuzzFeed News “Ok. Bye bye,” and hung up. The website DCLeaks.com obtained Powell’s emails. The website has been reported to have some connection to Russian intelligence operatives. Russians have been accused of potentially trying to manipulate the US presidential election. In July, the FBI said it believed Russia was behind the hack of the Democratic National Committee’s servers.

Other hacked emails from Powell reveal he allegedly slammed former President Bill Clinton for committing adultery and also called Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump a “national disgrace”. The email shows Powell telling Democratic donor Jeffrey Leeds that he hopes to avoid having to vote for Hillary Clinton for president, pointing to the New York Post’s coverage of her husband’s alleged affairs.

“I would rather not have to vote for her, although she is a friend I respect,” he writes in the email dated July 26, 2014. “A 70-year-old person with a long track record, unbridled ambition, greedy, not transformational, with a husband still dicking bimbos at home.”

Powell, who is a retired four-star general, accused Trump of having embraced a “racist” movement when he questioned the validity of President Obama’s birth certificate.  “That’s what the 99% believe. When Trump couldn’t keep that up he said he also wanted to see if the certificate noted that he was a Muslim. As I have said before, ‘What if he was?’ Muslims are born as Americans every day,” Powell’s hacked email reveals.  Powell’s spokeswoman Peggy Cifrino told The Washington Post on Wednesday that “the general has been hacked and that these are his emails.”

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