Over the decades, Bob Woodward has carried out around 50 interviews with the first Black U.S. secretary of state, Colin Powell. The journalist has now shared what turned out to be their final chat—an interview from July in which Powell accused former President Donald Trump of attempting a coup. Woodward wrote that Powell appeared to be aware that his life was coming to an end before his death Monday from complications related to COVID-19. “I’ve got multiple myeloma cancer, and I’ve got Parkinson’s disease. But otherwise I’m fine,” Powell joked. “Don’t feel sorry for me, for God’s sakes! I’m [84] years old.” Turning to Trump, Powell noted that the former president lost the election, “but Trump refuses to acknowledge that he wasn’t reelected. He has people who go along with him on that.” Asked about the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, he said: “It was awful. He was going in there to overturn the government.”
