 So in case you haven't noticed, we haven't been hearing too much lately from Howard Schultz, and it's been really wonderful. It's been incredibly peaceful without his annoying presence in the 2020 field. But there's a very specific reason as to why he's gone silent. His Twitter account has, as of late, gone dormant, and it's because he feels as if he may not actually have to run as a centrist independent after all because he's thinking that Joe Biden is probably going to pull off a victory and become the Democratic Party nominee. However, in the event Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren pulls out a victory, that is what will catalyze Howard Schultz's centrist independent run. This is what two people close to Howard Schultz are saying. So a report from Fox News of all places highlights the reason why he has chosen to suspend public talks of an independent run. This is from Charlie Gasparino, who writes billionaire businessman and former Starbucks chief executive Howard Schultz has delayed his decision on whether to run for president as an independent as he assesses the possibility of former vice president Joe Biden capturing the Democratic nomination Fox Business has learned. If Biden, a moderate liberal who is friendly to business, emerged as the likely Democratic nominee, this would be a significant impediment to Schultz running for president since his campaign would focus on similar issues to Biden's according to two people with direct knowledge of Schultz's thinking. And if Biden does survive a Democratic primary without betraying his record as a moderate, it's unlikely Schultz would mount his independent campaign, they add. People close to Schultz say the former CEO who has never run for office in the past recently has been keeping a low profile in part because of back surgery. He is also paying close attention to the burgeoning field of Democratic candidates entering the race and whether far left candidates like socialist Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders or Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren could win the nomination, which will all but certain lead him to join the race as an independent. One additional factor, Schultz may be weighing the cutthroat nature of a campaign. As Fox Business reported in February, Schultz was quote freaked out by the early Democratic backlash he received while promoting a potential presidential run. His decision will be based on how the Democratic field shakes out and seeing how Biden dares said one of the people familiar with Schultz's decision making. If Joe Biden remains strong and remains a moderate, there clearly is a much narrower path. So this is incredibly infuriating to me because what we have here is a petulant billionaire who's trying to hold the Democratic party hostage if he doesn't get his way. Because not only is he saying I'm going to run if someone who I don't like wins, but he's also saying if Joe Biden doesn't do what I want him to do, if he doesn't run his campaign in a way that appeals to me, I'm going to jump in and spoil it. I'm going to guarantee essentially that Donald Trump gets a second term. The nerve of this guy. And think about this, there's no way he's delusional enough to think that he can actually win because I think he's a very dim-witted person, he's another dumb billionaire, but I don't actually believe he's stupid enough to think he can win. Think about how hard it is for someone who isn't part of one of the major two parties to win. Back in 2016, we had the most disliked candidates, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, ever run for president. So if there was ever going to be an election cycle where someone from the Green Party or the Libertarian Party would be able to get at least that 5% threshold where they'd be able to secure federal funding, it would have been 2016. But back then, neither of them got to 5%. Even someone as politically talented as Jill Stein couldn't get barely more than 1%. Duverger's law held strong, even in an instance where you had two very unlikeable characters running. So what makes him think that he's special and he can somehow subvert the two party system and beat Trump and potentially Bernie or Warren? I just don't think he honestly believes this. It's unfathomable. He just is getting in to spoil it. That's what this is about. He wants to make sure that he keeps his tax cuts no matter what and if someone like Warren or Bernie or I'm assuming Tulsi got in and threatened to raise his taxes, he'd rather opt for someone like Donald Trump because even if Donald Trump makes the pundit class and the elites like Howard Schultz feel uneasy because he is overtly bigoted and flirts with fascism, the thing about Donald Trump is that he still does things that are beneficial to the ruling class. He cuts their taxes. He does what the military industrial complex wants. He wants to deregulate the industries. So Trump in their view, in his view, is a better option than Bernie Sanders. So if he doesn't get what he wants, he's willing to jump in and spoil it. This guy is one of the nerviest people ever. And look, if this happens, if we get a Bernie Sanders Democratic nomination and he does this, I don't think he realizes that there will be hell to pay. We will fucking rain down on him like hellfire. There will be a boycott. Outside of every single Starbucks store in the country, because even if he's no longer the Starbucks CEO, he still is a majority shareholder. So this will hurt his bottom line. You're not going to be able to spoil this election for us, Howard, because you're not getting what you want. Because if you want to fuck with us, we're going to bite back. We're not going to take this lying down. If you want to ruin this election so you can keep your precious tax cuts, then we're going to make sure that we hit you where it hurts. And that is your bottom line. But just the fact that he is essentially threatening the Democratic Party. He's even threatening Joe Biden. Make sure you continue on this trajectory as a moderate. Otherwise, I'm going to run, Joe. Unreal. Now, let's say hypothetically speaking, Bernie Sanders did win and he jumped in. Would this hurt Bernie? Would this take votes away from Bernie? Take votes away from Bernie? I don't like using that word, because obviously votes have to be earned. But I mean, he has one very narrow goal, and that is to hand the election to Trump. But could Bernie still win? Yeah. And in fact, I think that even if Howard Schultz was running, I think Bernie most likely would win. But it would definitely make Bernie's chances a little less likely of winning, right? It would hurt Bernie. It would cut into his lead. Because you know that there'd be people like, you know, Joe Scarborough and these elites, these moderates in mainstream media who probably would opt for Howard Schultz after beating us over the head for years saying fall in line, unity, unity, unity. We know that they either vote for Donald Trump or vote for Howard Schultz. But nonetheless, if that happened, I still think Bernie would win because there was a three-way matchup back in 2016 that was conducted after Michael Bloomberg was considering the same thing. And guess who still won? Bernie Sanders. Now it was really close. It was by a percent, but he still won nonetheless. And Michael Bloomberg has more name recognition and actually has political experience. Howard Schultz does not, and he is largely hated by everyone. So I don't think that it would necessarily be a guarantee in spite of what I said, but that's certainly what he's hoping for. He wants to spoil the election so Trump gets a second term because that's better than the alternative, Bernie Sanders in his view. And I love how basically, you know, they talk about how back in February they reported on how he was freaked out by Democratic backlash. You were freaked out by that. What were you expecting? You're basically threatening to spoil the election. If Trump is elected for four more years, ask yourself this. How many more Supreme Court justices will he be able to appoint? I know that this doesn't matter much to Howard Schultz because no matter who's on the Supreme Court, no matter what the makeup is, he's insulated from whatever damage they could cause because he has billions of dollars. But everyone else would be royally fucked. And if it's because of Howard Schultz, he will never live it down. Mike is a total loser. So don't hit the subscribe button, okay? And whatever you do, folks, do not hit the notification bell either. Mike treats me so unfairly.