On Tuesday, Starbucks CEO and potential 2020 candidate Howard Schultz slammed Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) for her plan to abolish private health insurance. He vehemently opposed the idea of abolishing any industry.

“You just played Senator Harris as saying she wants to abolish the insurance industry. That’s not correct. That’s not American,” Schultz said on CBS’ “This Morning.” Harris called for the abolition of private health insurance at a CNN town hall on Monday night.

Stunning moment tonight during her CNN Town Hall in Iowa when Democrat Senator Kamala Harris says that she supports eliminating private health insurance EVEN if you like your current plan. pic.twitter.com/1aftlxwctx — Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) January 29, 2019

Schultz mocked that idea. “What’s next? What industry are we going to abolish next? The coffee industry?”

Having rightly slammed a Democrat, the Starbucks CEO decided he had to attack a Republican policy as well. “The Republicans want to get rid of the Affordable Care Act [Obamacare]. I don’t agree with that,” Schultz said. “The Affordable Care Act should stay and it should be refined.”

“But to think to get rid of the insurance industry — again, this is exactly the situation, it’s far too extremes on both sides, and the silent majority of America does not have a voice. That’s the voice I want to give,” Schultz declared.

When asked why he doesn’t run as a Democrat, the Starbucks CEO said, “I would have to be disingenuous to try and run as a Democrat.”

He then suggested that the vast American middle (between Republicans and Democrats) is large enough to elect a moderate candidate. “There are millions of people in the country who no longer affiliate themselves with a Democrat or Republican,” he said. “Here’s the facts. Forty-two percent of the American people today designate themselves as an independent person. Thirty percent are registered and 12 percent affiliate. That’s more than Republicans and Democrats. Let’s give them an opportunity.”

Schultz’s candidacy has already sparked calls for Democrats to boycott Starbucks.

Vanity projects that help destroy democracy are disgusting. If he enters the race, I will start a Starbucks boycott because I’m not giving a penny that will end up in the election coffers of a guy who will help Trump win. https://t.co/epUYVrcEg8 — Neera Tanden (@neeratanden) January 26, 2019

PJ Media’s Roger Simon has insisted that the Starbucks CEO could actually win. I’m a bit more skeptical. The 2016 election featured the two least popular presidential candidates in history (according to polling), but alternative candidates still fell way short. The fear and hatred for the “other party” will drive Republicans to support Trump and Democrats to support any lizard creature who runs against him. I’d like to hope Schultz has a chance and starting this early is a good idea. But I remain quite skeptical.

As for Kamala Harris, when it comes to abolishing industries, health insurance was far from her only target. She also supported a “Green New Deal,” and if that means the Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) version, that would eliminate all fossil fuel energy industries. My PJ Media estimate of the costs of her plan found it would cost $49.109 trillion in the first ten years — but the plan is actually impossible because a transition to 100 percent wind and solar is unworkable.

“I support a Green New Deal … Climate change is an existential threat to us and we have got to deal with the reality of it,” Kamala Harris says. #HarrisTownHall https://t.co/0EMGUsQFut pic.twitter.com/HJIG0HFQDr — CNN (@CNN) January 29, 2019

Schultz was right to attack her for abolishing industries. That is “not American,” indeed.

Follow the author of this article on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.