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 (CNN) – John Sununu, a top surrogate for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, said Thursday that Colin Powell’s repeat endorsement of President Barack Obama could be explained partly by the two men’s shared race. 
 
 Speaking on CNN’s “Piers Morgan Tonight,” Sununu downplayed the importance of the former secretary of state’s endorsement, pointing to the support Romney’s received from former President George H.W. Bush. He went on to explain that Powell’s endorsement of Obama didn’t rely solely on the political issues at hand. 
 
 
 
 "When you take a look at Colin Powell, you have to look at whether that's an endorsement based on issues or he's got a slightly different reason for endorsing President Obama," Sununu said, adding: "I think when you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being president of the United States, I applaud Colin for standing with him." 
 
 Later, Sununu released a statement saying "Colin Powell is a friend and I respect the endorsement decision he made and I do not doubt that it was based on anything but his support of the President's policies." 
 
 Sununu also pointed to Morgan's original question, which was whether Powell should leave the Republican Party. 
 
 "I don't think he should," Sununu wrote. 
 
 Powell, who served as the first African American secretary of state under President George W. Bush, made his endorsement earlier Thursday, citing a number of issues not related to race as reasons he was backing Obama for a second time. 
 
 The Republican said he believe the economy is "starting to pick up" and attributed the recovery to the president's polices, citing specifically the auto industry bailout and Obama's economic proposals. "Generally we've come out of the dive and we're starting to gain altitude," he said. 
 
 Powell said he was "uncomfortable" with Romney's tax plans and views on foreign policy. Pointing to Monday night's final presidential debate, Powell argued the GOP nominee had changed positions on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The former secretary of state said he was concerned with the advice Romney was getting from campaign staff. 
 
 "I think there are some very, very strong neo-conservative views that are presented by the governor that I have some trouble with," Powell said, though he did not elaborate on which views. 
 
 "I also saw the president get us out of one war, start to get us out of a second war and did not get us into any new wars," he said. 
 
 Powell made headlines when the former George W. Bush administration official, who also worked for President Ronald Reagan and President George H.W. Bush, crossed party lines and supported Obama last cycle. 
 
 CNN's Jim Acosta contributed to this report. ||||| Sen. John McCain said on Thursday Gen. Colin Powell has “harmed” his “legacy even further” by endorsing President Barack Obama and defending his foreign policy. 
 
 “All I can say is: Gen. Powell, you disappoint us,” McCain said Thursday on Fox News Radio’s “Kilmeade and Friends.” “And you have harmed your legacy even further by defending what is clearly been the most feckless foreign policy in my lifetime.” 
 
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 Powell, a retired four-star general, had endorsed Obama over McCain in 2008. 
 
 (PHOTOS: Colin Powell over the years) 
 
 In an interview with CBS earlier Thursday, Powell criticized Mitt Romney’s foreign policy positions as a “moving target.” 
 
 Meanwhile, McCain also criticized Powell for his presentation to the United Nations in the 2003 run-up to the Iraq War. Powell, serving as George W. Bush’s secretary of State, focused on purported links between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda — information that turned out to be based on a false report. Powell eventually apologized for the presentation earlier this year. 
 
 “I think one of the sad aspects of his career is going to the United Nations Security Council and telling them things about Iraq that were absolutely false,” McCain said, though he said he is an “admirer” of Powell’s. 
 
 McCain supported the invasion of Iraq. ||||| Former White House Chief of Staff John Sununu, a co-chair of GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney's campaign, said in an interview Thursday night that retired Gen. Colin Powell's decision to endorse President Barack Obama's re-election bid appeared to have been driven by race. 
 
 However, Sununu later seemed to reverse himself. 
 
 "Frankly, when you take a look at Colin Powell, you have to wonder if that's an endorsement based on issues, or whether he's got a slightly different reason for preferring President Obama?" Sununu said on CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight." 
 
 "What reason would that be?" a somewhat-perplexed sounding Morgan replied. 
 
 "Well, I think when you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being President of the United States, I applaud Colin for standing with him," Sununu said. 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: Cory Booker: Sununu's comment "dumb") 
 
 A few hours after the CNN interview, Sununu issued a statement appearing to back away from the comment. 
 
 "Colin Powell is a friend and I respect the endorsement decision he made and I do not doubt that it was based on anything but his support of the president’s policies. Piers Morgan’s question was whether Colin Powell should leave the party, and I don’t think he should," Sununu said. 
 
 Powell, who like Obama is African American, made no mention of the president's race in announcing the endorsement on Thursday. Appearing on "CBS This Morning," Powell credited Obama with reversing the country's abrupt economic downturn and expressed general approval of the president's policies on issues ranging from national security to climate change to health care reform. 
 
 “I think, generally, we’ve come out of the [economic] dive and we’re starting to gain altitude,” said Powell, who served as George W. Bush’s secretary of state. “It doesn’t mean all our problems are solved....But I see that we are starting to rise up." 
 
 "I also saw the president get us out of one war, start to get us out of a second war, and did not get us into any new wars," Powell added. "The actions that he has taken with respect to protecting us from terrorism have been very, very solid." 
 
 Powell also suggested that the tax cuts Romney has touted could not be offset by reductions in spending. 
 
 In the CBS interview, Powell did express personal loyalty towards Obama. "I signed on for a long patrol with President Obama and I don't think this is the time to make such a sudden change," the retired general said. 
 
 Powell also accused Romney of changing his foreign policy positions in recent months. "This is quite a different set of foreign policy views than he had earlier in the campaign," Powell said. "Sometimes, I don't sense that he has thought through these issues as thoroughly as he should have." 
 
 "I think there are some very, very strong neoconservative views that are presented by the governor that I have some trouble with," Powell said. 
 
 Sununu, a regular surrogate for Romney's campaign, has made several provocative comments in recent months. 
 
 "I wish this president would learn how to be an American," Sununu said during a Romney campaign-organized conference call in July. He later apologized for the remark. 
 
 In an interview earlier this month, after the first presidential debate, Sununu called Obama "lazy and detached." The statement prompted MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell to suggest that Sununu might want to take his comments back, but the former White House chief of staff more or less repeated the statement. "He didn't want to prepare for this debate. He's lazy and disengaged," Sununu said. 
 
 Sununu served as governor of New Hampshire for about six years in the 1980s and was President George H.W. Bush's first chief of staff. 
 
 UPDATE (Friday, 12:33 A.M.): This post has been updated with Sununu's statement seeking to clarify his remarks about Powell. 
 
 Read more about: 2012 Presidential Campaign, Mitt Romney, Race, Colin Powell, Endorsements, John Sununu ||||| Senator John McCain (R-AZ) joined Brian Kilmeade on his radio show Kilmeade and Friends this morning and when asked about Gen. Colin Powell’s endorsement of President Obama McCain forcefully responded with, “General Powell you disappoint us and you have harmed your legacy even further by defending what is clearly the most feckless foreign policy in my lifetime.” 
 
 Audio clip: Listen to mp3 clip. 
 
 To listen to Brian’s entire interview with Sen. McCain buy the podcast! 
 
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– John Sununu is co-chair of Mitt Romney's campaign and thus not happy that Republican Colin Powell endorsed President Obama. But the former White House chief of staff raised eyebrows last night on CNN with how he dismissed its importance: "When you take a look at Colin Powell, you have to look at whether that's an endorsement based on issues or he's got a slightly different reason for endorsing President Obama," he told Piers Morgan. "I think when you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being president of the United States, I applaud Colin for standing with him." That immediately roused the Twitters with accusations of the race card, and Sununu soon walked it back in a statement: "Colin Powell is a friend and I respect the endorsement decision he made and I do not doubt that it was based on anything but his support of the president's policies." John McCain also criticized the endorsement, notes Politico, but he kept race out of it: “All I can say is: Gen. Powell, you disappoint us,” McCain said on Fox News Radio. “And you have harmed your legacy even further by defending what has clearly been the most feckless foreign policy in my lifetime.” While he was on the subject, he blasted Powell's "absolutely false" presentation to the UN before the Iraq war in 2003.