Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) today slammed former Starbucks CEO and possible 2020 presidential candidate Howard Schultz, calling him a “total idiot.”

Brown made the comments during a stop on his speaking tour in Iowa.

A voter asked Ohio’s senior senator if he was worried about dark money in politics.

“Yeah, I mean you got this idiot Schultz running, maybe,” Brown responded. “He’s an idiot, I mean, he’s a total idiot.”

In Perry, Iowa, Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown called Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who's mulling an independent run for president, "a total idiot," and told a voter "I haven't decided yet," whether or not he'd accept PAC money. pic.twitter.com/YpHdX2pwrO

— DJ Judd (@DJJudd) February 1, 2019

Schultz has floated an independent run at the White House, drawing the ire of several prominent Democrats who fear he could siphon votes away in the race to unseat President Trump.

The billionaire is currently on a book tour as he mulls a possible bid for the White House.

Brown, a three-term senator, is mulling a presidential bid of his own.

He has not officially announced his candidacy, but is on a “Dignity of Work” listening tour in which he is visiting several early primary states.

A Democrat who won in state Donald Trump won easily in 2016, Brown has never been a big fan of centrists.

Once in Ohio, before I interviewed Brown, he looked at me and asked, “Jim, how do you live life as a moderate?”

“You guys in the middle of the road are just going to keep getting hit by cars from both directions,” he said with a chuckle.

I’ve always loved that question coming from Brown because, while a very civil man, he has never apologized for being firmly on the left.

Even when “liberal” became a dreaded word for most politicians, Brown wore it with a badge of honor.

This is what I wrote about Brown in my book Front Row Seat at the Circus:

“In fact, of all the politicians I’ve known through the years, Brown has the distinct honor of being the one who is easiest to detect telling a lie. Most senators and governors are highly skilled in being able to look you directly in the eye and tell you something you know for a fact is not accurate. John Kasich telling me over and over again he had no interest in running for president in 2016 comes to mind. Brown, on the other hand, will squirm in a chair and start sputtering his sentences, which is a dead giveaway for reporters.”

Brown is viewed by many as a younger more saleable Bernie Sanders, who has a proven record of winning in a red-leaning industrial state.