Howard Schultz Image by Getty Images

(JTA) — Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said he is “seriously thinking of running for president.”

In an interview aired on CBS’ “60 Minutes” on Sunday night, Schultz told correspondent Scott Pelley that he would run as a “centrist independent,” despite being a lifelong Democrat.

Schultz said the reason he would run as an independent, which critics say would help President Trump’s chances of being elected by splitting the vote, is that both parties “are consistently not doing what’s necessary on behalf of the American people and are engaged, every single day, in revenge politics.”

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Schultz, when asked “what effect” his being Jewish would have on his campaign, noted that “I am not running as a Jew if I decide to run for president, I’m running as an American who happens to be Jewish.”

He also said “I have great faith in the goodness and kindness of the American people. We elected an African-American president. I’m old enough to remember in 1960 when John F. Kennedy was running and there was an outcry of hate that no one Catholic should be president. I am Jewish, I have faith in God.”

Schultz, who is 65, briefly addressed some of the issues of the day. He said there should be a “fair and equitable way” for illegal immigrants to become U.S. citizens; that every American “deserves the right to have access to quality health care”; and that the 2018 tax cut should have focused less on business and more on the people who need it the most, those “who don’t have $400 in the bank.”

I love our country, and I am seriously considering running for president as a centrist independent.

— Howard Schultz (@HowardSchultz) January 28, 2019

He said as a coffee entrepreneur running for president he would “recruit and attract people who are smarter than me and more experienced, more skilled….” He said there would be a “complete separation” between him and the company for the duration of a campaign.

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