Howard Dean warns Schultz's 'vanity candidacy' could mean a 2nd term for Trump

Add Howard Dean to the list of those opposed — vehemently, and in some instances profanely — to the idea of Howard Schultz, the former Starbucks chief executive, entering the 2020 presidential race as an independent.

Dean, the former Vermont governor and former head of the Democratic National Committee, who ran in the Democratic primary himself in 2004, told Yahoo News that Schultz has no chance of winning outside the two-party duopoly, and that an independent run could take away enough votes from the Democratic nominee to reelect President Trump.

“I actually have polled races like this, because when I was chairman [of the DNC] we were really worried about [former New York Mayor Michael] Bloomberg doing this, and I’m sure Bloomberg was polling at the same time and I’m sure that his polls showed what my polls showed, which is that he couldn’t win a single state, but he could switch the votes from one person to the other,” Dean said. “The problem is if [Schultz] runs as an independent, he’s going to get, by my calculations, between 6 and 14 percent of the vote, and he’ll get zero electoral votes and he’ll give the possibility of swinging the race to Trump.”

The reason to be wary of the coffee-chain billionaire entering the race, Dean said, is that Schultz would go after voters who are in play for Democrats.

“What he’s talking about is running a campaign that’s going to appeal to suburban Republicans. Well, suburban Republicans aren’t going to vote for Donald Trump like they did last time,” Dean said.

Trump seems to agree with Dean’s assessment, and taunted Schultz on Twitter Monday in what he reportedly admitted was an attempt to encourage him to run.

Later in the day, the president explained why he’d gone after Schultz, according to a tweet by the New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman:

Numerous commentators decried Schultz’s interview with “60 Minutes” Sunday, in which he said he was seriously considering an independent candidacy.

Dean echoed Bloomberg’s warning and urged Schultz to consider running as a Democrat.

“I think it’s a disaster for Schultz personally as an independent. He’s welcome to run in the Democratic Party. There’s plenty of room for a centrist candidate,” Dean said, calling Schultz’s potential independent bid a “vanity candidacy.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a declared Democratic candidate, was equally dismissive, on substantive policy grounds: “We have a billionaire who says he wants to jump into the race, and the first issue he’s raised is ‘No new taxes on billionaires.’ Let’s see where that goes,” Warren told Talking Points Memo.

While Schultz continues to promote his new memoir, “From the Ground Up,” and to stoke speculation about his political future, Dean hopes the public backlash against his candidacy will cut through what the consultants have been telling him. Within hours of his “60 Minutes” interview on Sunday, there were calls to boycott Starbucks if he runs.

“I’m sure he’s hired consultants who want his money and who’ll tell him what he wants to hear,” Dean said.

Schultz, whose personal wealth is estimated at more than $3 billion, has already hired some big-name advisers, including Bill Burton, who worked in the White House under President Barack Obama, and John McCain’s 2008 campaign manager, Steve Schmidt.

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