Asked multiple times by CNN's Poppy Harlow at a CNN town hall in Houston, Schultz, who has not yet entered the 2020 presidential race, dodged the question. He said he would not run if, in the next few months, "math doesn't tally up" but declined to say he would do the same later in the race, should he decide to run.
"First off, the issue of being a spoiler, how can you spoil a system that is already broken," he said. "It's just not working."
He then added, "Now, what I've said publicly and I want to repeat, if the math doesn't tally up when I get through the next three or four months and I take my message out to the American people and I continue to talk this way about how concerned I am about the country and how much I think we can do so much better under a different process, if the numbers don't add up, I will not run for president, because I will not do anything, whatsoever, to re-elect Donald Trump no one wants to see him fired more than me."
But pressed on whether he would make the same calculation deep into the presidential run in September or October 2020, Schultz said he was not at that point yet.
"At this point right now, I'm asking a different question. And that is, it's a lot less about me than giving the American people a voice that they don't have," he said. "And what better expression of our democracy than giving the American people a better choice, a new choice. There's nothing in the Constitution, not one word, that says anything about parties. So why can't I raise my voice and say I'm deeply concerned about where we are as a country?"
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
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