Colin Powell dies of COVID-19

The former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was fully vaccinated against the coronavirus and received treatment at Walter Reed National Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., according to his family. Gen. Colin Powell died of COVID-19 complications on Monday at the age of 84, his family said in a statement.

Who was Powell? He became the first African American chairman of the Joint Chiefs and served under Democratic and Republican administrations, overseeing the U.S. invasions of Panama and Kuwait. He served as secretary of state under former President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. Powell drew criticism for a 2003 presentation before the UN Security Council in support of the U.S. war in Iraq in which he cited faulty information that Saddam Hussein had access to weapons of mass destruction. In a statement, Bush said he and former first lady Laura Bush were “deeply saddened” by Powell’s death.