Despite Backlash, Schultz Pushes Ahead With Vision For Independent Presidency

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is set to provide more details on what an independent presidency could look like despite not yet deciding whether to enter the White House race himself.

In a speech Wednesday at Miami Dade College in Florida, Schultz will further explain how a president elected outside the two-party system could repair the current dysfunction in Washington, according to prepared remarks obtained by The Associated Press.

Schultz will commit to signing only legislation that has bipartisan support and to not put forward any Supreme Court nominee who cannot be confirmed by two-thirds of the Senate, according to the remarks.

“The courts have become yet another battlefield in the ongoing war between Democratic and Republican leaders,” Schultz will say, according to prepared remarks.

“These battles have undermined our faith in the rule of law and the impartiality of the entire judicial system. All of this has to change.”

Schultz is also expected to say that he would assemble a Cabinet that includes members from across the political spectrum and consists of a larger share of women than that of any previous president. In an explicit contrast to President Donald Trump, Schultz will argue that he’ll nominate “the most qualified people, period” and that he won’t “humiliate them on Twitter or make decisions so outrageous that they feel compelled to resign in protest.” Trump’s Cabinet has been plagued by regular turnover and scandal.

Schultz has been exploring a potential independent candidacy for months, to the dismay of some Democrats who say that an outside independent candidacy could have a spoiler effect, handing Trump a second term.

Schultz, a lifelong Democrat who recently registered as an independent, has said he would do nothing to help re-elect Trump. He has said that Democrats and Republicans are equally to blame for repelling voters at the center of the political spectrum, and he has argued that an independent candidacy like his could re-engage them.