***To read the full blog, please check out the complete post on NewsBusters***
In the midst of CNN’s Tuesday Town Hall with prospective independent presidential candidate and former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, moderator Poppy seemed to get a bit annoyed at her guest when he appeared unwilling to “commit” to dropping out of the race in the event he would spoil the election for Democrats in the fall of 2020.
The question about leaving the race first came up via a Rice University student who wasn’t a fan of the two-party system. After Schultz explained how he felt he could get broad support from the electorate, and refused to run as a Democrat (a question from Harlow), Harlow began grilling him about at what point he would drop out of the race:
POPPY HARLOW: So that point, you have said and you just repeated it, that you promise that you will not be a spoiler. That you will not run. That you will not continue running if it would mean a second term for President Trump.
HOWARD SCHULTZ: Okay.
HARLOW: If you run, Mr. Schultz, and if you look at the polls in the fall of 2020 and it looks like you are going to be a spoiler, like you will get President Trump re-elected, will you drop off the race?
SCHULTZ: Okay, a very important question, so let's clarify this right now, right here, on national TV, on CNN. First off, the issue of being a spoiler, how can you spoil a system that is already broken?
(...)