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| © Provided by Politico, LLC Michael Avenatti has sold himself as the Democrat tough enough to take on the president. |
By Caitlin Emma, POLITICO
Attorney Michael Avenatti on Sunday night assailed President Donald Trump’s “racism and bigotry,” painting himself as the working-class fighter who can stand up to the president’s “unusual cruelty” and “make America decent again.”
An aggressive trial attorney and 2020 hopeful, Avenatti has sold himself as the Democrat tough enough to take on Trump. He’s best known for representing porn actress Stormy Daniels in her lawsuit against the president over what was characterized as a 2016 hush money payment.
But his presidential ambitions took a major hit last week when he was quoted in Time magazine as saying the Democratic presidential nominee to contest Trump “better be a white male.”
Avenatti later told POLITICO that he was “misquoted and taken out of context.” But his comments incited furor on Twitter, intense backlash from the left and elation from the right. The stumble also came as the Senate Judiciary Committee referred Avenatti and his client Julie Swetnick to the Justice Department for an investigation over accusations she leveled last month against Brett Kavanaugh, then a Supreme Court nominee.
Avenatti didn’t address the Time magazine comments on Sunday night. He received a standing ovation after addressing a fundraising dinner in Northern Virginia hosted by Emgage Action, a Muslim-American advocacy group.
“We are the party of Davids,“ while Trump and Republicans represent Goliath, Avenatti said.
“Davids are women, Davids are black, Davids speak Spanish,” he said, building on his Biblical reference. “We cannot afford to show up to the fight without a slingshot.”
On Sunday night, Avenatti talked up his Missouri roots — working a string of humble jobs, paying his way through college and law school and eventually becoming the first in his family to graduate college.
He also bashed the Trump administration’s separation of children and families at the U.S.-Mexico border, highlighting his record of defending immigrants in some of those border separation cases. Avenatti has long-portrayed himself as a defender of women and immigrants.
“Donald Trump has fostered an environment of racism and bigotry in this country in an effort to rise to power,” Avenatti said. And he’s counting on white men to look the other way, he said.
“You may believe that the way to combat Trump is being by gentle and classy and kind and gracious,” he said. “I do not believe that we can be gracious any longer … If we want a more inclusive, tolerant, merciful and loving America, then we must be willing to fight for it.”
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