Colin Powell, the first Black U.S. secretary of state, has died from complications after contracting COVID-19.
Here’s how he used to humorously remember leaving his role ...
Here’s how he used to humorously remember leaving his role ...
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00:00At this stage of my life, this stage of my career, I'm just glad to be anywhere.
00:09It ain't easy.
00:18I think about it late at night that just a few years ago,
00:22there was every president, every king, every prime minister in the world calling,
00:27wanting to come see me, or they wanted me to come see them.
00:31One day you're sitting there and every reporter, every journalist in the world
00:34wants to talk to you. They want to know what you think.
00:38One day you're sitting there and you're the number one diplomat of the whole free world.
00:41One day you're sitting there and you're Secretary of State of the United States of America.
00:47Next day you ain't.
00:53And the way they do it is cruel.
00:54It was a dark and snowy night.
01:00I'd just given a speech down in Washington to the World Affairs Council
01:04and I was in my armored limousine heading back to my home in
01:07McLean, Virginia with a chase car behind me and a chase car in front of me full of my bodyguards.
01:13And as we drove through the night, the phone rang in the car and I picked it up.
01:19Powell, Mr. Secretary, this is the Operations Senate State Department.
01:24Just wanted to let you know that the Senate has given its advice and consent
01:28to the appointment of Dr. Condoleezza Rice to be the new Secretary of State.
01:33The president has appointed her and she has been sworn in.
01:36You are no longer the Secretary of State.
01:39Well, okay.
01:43Hung up the phone, pulled up in front of my house and got out of the limousine.
01:49The door was wide open.
01:52There were communicators inside pulling out all the wires, the red phone, the white phone,
01:56the blue phone.
01:57I said, hey man, leave one so I can call Domino's, huh?
02:00You know, I got it.
02:06And then suddenly all of my bodyguards started piling into the cars and driving off.
02:12I said, guys, where are you going?
02:15Hey man, it's over.
02:16But they're still after me.
02:22Sorry baby, that's your problem.
02:23I'm gone.
02:25So that's what it's like to go from there down to there.