*Black Entertainment Television founder Robert Johnson told CNBC on Wednesday he’s viewing the election between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden through the lens of being a businessman.
“Where I come out as a businessman, I will take the devil I know over the devil I don’t know anytime of the week,” Johnson said on “Squawk Box.”
When pressed to say if he is definitively supporting President Trump, Johnson said that as a longtime corporate executive he knows how the president will react to important issues of the day such as coronavirus, but can’t put his finger on how Biden would run the country.
“I know what President Trump has done and what he’s said he will do. I don’t know what Vice President Biden has said he will do other than masks, listen to the scientists,” the 74-year-old Johnson said. He suggested the coronavirus response should weigh the tradeoffs of “pandemic safety” versus “economy growth.”
Johnson called Tuesday night’s first presidential debates a waste of 90 minutes, and repeatedly suggested he didn’t learn enough in the debate about Biden, the two-term vice president under former President Barack Obama.
Asked specifically about Trump not explicitly condemning White supremacist groups during the debate, Johnson dodged the question and pivoted toward the coronavirus pandemic, saying he’s not sure either Biden or Trump could have taken different steps to significantly reduce the death total.
Johnson has been a big Democratic donor over the years but has also spoken positively about Trump’s economic policy. In 2016, he said he declined a position in Trump’s Cabinet, saying it was not due to politics but because he could not deal with government red tape.
Watch Johnson’s interview on “Squawk Box” below:
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