Howard Schultz asks dead silent audience to clap during speech

Howard Schultz just had his very own "please clap" moment.

During a speech at Purdue University on Thursday, the potential 2020 independent candidate commented on the school's falling cost of education. "Under President [Mitch] Daniels, the cost of an education here will be less expensive in nominal dollars in 2020 than it was in 2012," he said. "Congratulations." Nobody seemed to care, and so Schultz was met with dead silence.

"You've got to clap for that," he told the audience, which proceeded to do as he said, as reported by the Independent Journal Review's Josh Billinson. The New York Times' Astead Herndon writes that this was the "first real applause of Howard Schultz's speech," event though it came "20 minutes in."

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That wasn't even the only time Schultz asked the audience to clap. Later, after pledging that he would release his tax returns if he runs for president, NBC's Allan Smith reports Schultz told the Purdue audience, "you can clap for that."

This, of course, echoes one of the most memorable moments from the 2016 Republican presidential primaries: when candidate Jeb Bush was met with awkward silence after delivering a line he thought would prompt applause, only to ask the audience to "please clap." Bush, the early 2016 favorite, dropped out of the race less than three weeks later.

Schultz has not yet decided whether to enter the 2020 race, but a recent CNN poll found that his favorability rating is 13 percent, with almost half of respondents never having heard of him. Brendan Morrow