Schultz, in an interview with The New York Times, said he planned to crisscross the country for the next three months as part of a book tour before deciding whether to enter the race. A billionaire, Schultz would face a difficult road despite his considerable wealth: Few independent candidates have mounted successful challenges for the White House.
“We have a broken political system with both parties basically in business to preserve their own ideology without a recognition and responsibility to represent the interests of the American people,” Schultz said in the interview.
Schultz was also featured in a segment on “60 Minutes” on Sunday night before the publication of his new book, “From the Ground Up,” in which he criticized President Donald Trump as “not qualified to be the president.”
The possibility of Schultz’s candidacy as an independent has drawn condemnation from Democrats, who said that an independent run would split the vote on Election Day 2020 and hand Trump a second term.
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“I have two words for Howard Schultz on a potential run for president as an independent: Just don’t,” Tina Podlodowski, chairwoman of the state Democratic Party of Washington, said last week as speculation mounted about Schultz’s plans.
Schultz said he was well aware of the criticism, but said it was misplaced.
“I am certainly prepared for the cynics and the naysayers to come out and say this cannot be done,” he said. “I don’t agree with them. I think it’s un-American to say it can’t be done. I’m not doing this to be a spoiler.”
Asked if he would consider changing his mind and run as a Democrat, he said, “I feel if I ran as a Democrat I would have to be disingenuous and say things that I don’t believe because the party has shifted so far to the left.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.