Media exec ‘extremely concerned’ not enough focus on possible third-party spoiler

Media executive Tom Rogers said Friday night that Vice President Kamala Harris “has the momentum” to defeat Donald Trump in November’s “tight race,” but warned that “there is not enough focus” on the possibility that a third-party candidate could derail the race for the Democrats.

Rogers, editor-at-large of Newsweek and founder of MSNBC and CNBC, told host Stephanie Ruhle on “The 11^th Hour” Friday that while he believes that the former president’s poll numbers have “a ceiling,” the only way Trump wins the presidency “is if there is somebody on the ballot who takes his opponent down below 50%.”

He continued: “And while we may have the first woman president of the United States, we may also have the same woman spoiler who killed it for Hillary Clinton in 2016, and that is Jill Stein is on the ballot in all the swing states, and when you look at what an independent third-party candidate takes, it's always 1% to 2% of the vote.”

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Along with Stein, independent and third-party candidates include Cornel West and Chase Oliver.

“I’m extremely concerned that there is just not enough focus on if you vote for third-party you're voting for Donald Trump, they've got to get on that with a digital targeted campaign right away,” Rogers said. He reminded the panel that third-party candidates “could drain 1% or 2%” of the election margin that he said would negatively affect Harris.

Joanna Coles, chief content officer and creative officer for The Daily Beast, added that so-called “shy Trump voters” who may not overtly show support for Trump are seeming to back the former president on the economy and immigration.

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