Howard Schultz: Democratic Party left me amid move to the extreme left

Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, and potential 2020 presidential candidate, slammed the Democratic Party for deviating to the extreme left with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders now its poster child leading the party’s political agenda.

“The Democratic Party has shifted significantly to the left,” he said during an interview with FOX Business’ Trish Regan. “The Democratic Party left me, I didn’t leave them.”

Schultz, a Jewish American, also weighed in on another Democrat, U.S. Freshman Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who is facing backlash for a string of anti-Semitic statements she made about America’s allegiance toward Israel.

“I don’t know her,” he said about Rep. Omar. “I think her comments that she made are not proper, in every way are inconsistent with anyone who is an elected official at the federal level.”

“If I run for president, I’m proud to be Jewish. I represent America. I am running as an American who happens to be Jewish.”

- Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz

The billionaire businessman is considering an independent run in the 2020 presidential election because both political parties, he says, are steeped in an ideology and are unwilling to work together on behalf of the American people.

“If I run for president, I’m proud to be Jewish. I represent America. I am running as an American who happens to be Jewish,” Schultz said on “Trish Regan Primetime.”

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Schultz also expressed his concern over racial inequality in the U.S., adding that national reparations being pushed by the 2020 Democratic candidates can be better served by boosting education in funding historical black colleges.

“Historical black colleges are underfunded and really struggling financially in this country and I think that would be a good start in which we can demonstrate a level of investment in education,” he said.