“When you have a white male making the arguments, they carry more weight. Should they carry more weight? Absolutely not. But do they? Yes," Michael Avenatti is quoted as saying in a TIME Magazine profile. | Richard Vogel/AP Photo Elections Avenatti, wanting to fight Trump, takes some hits The hard-charging lawyer is pilloried over a quote about white males, hours after the Senate refers him for investigation.

Michael Avenatti wanted a fight. Now he has one.

The hard-charging attorney, best known for representing porn actress Stormy Daniels, has pegged his 2020 ambitions on what he describes as his unique ability to bring a fight to President Donald Trump.


On Thursday, he was taking hits on two fronts.

Avenatti sparked a furor after he was quoted in Time magazine, saying the Democratic presidential nominee to battle Trump “better be a white male.”

On the same day, 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 dismissed the Time article, saying he was taken out of context. And he framed the committee move as welcome news, calling it “Christmas in October.”

“I think it better be a white male,” he is quoted in Time as saying about the Democratic party's next presidential nominee. “When you have a white male making the arguments, they carry more weight. Should they carry more weight? Absolutely not. But do they? Yes.”

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On Thursday, Avenatti emphatically stepped away from the remarks.

“It’s a f------ outrage,” he told POLITICO of the Time article. “I was misquoted and taken out of context.”

Avenatti said his messaging in front of crowds across the country over the past two months has stood in stark contrast to how remarks attributed to him in the Time article were being interpreted.

“Anybody who has seen any of my speeches would know I call out white males for not doing their part,” Avenatti said. “And I say that especially white males need to step up and be heard and defend women, minorities and people of color because they can’t do it alone. I usually get standing ovations for it. That’s what I meant, I’ve been applauded for it. … I’m not going to have people turn this into something that it’s not.”

Still, the reported remarks lit up the Twittersphere, prompting a backlash from the left and leaving the right euphoric.

“This man is a clown,” activist Shaun King tweeted. “He’s Better Call Saul. And now we are learning he’s also a sexist bigot.”

Later Thursday, Time published the full exchange with Avenatti, putting the discussion into context. In the published exchange, Avenatti lays out his argument for why a woman would face challenges that men wouldn’t encounter against Trump.

“Women face a very, very difficult time when they run for higher elected office unfortunately, especially against a guy like Donald Trump. Okay? If they don’t hit hard enough, they’re soft, right? And if they hit back with the same force as a man, they’re classified as a bitch, right? Which is entirely unfair to women. And that’s a very fine line for a woman to walk. And it’s a line that a man doesn’t have to walk. And, again, that’s not right. It shouldn’t be that way. But it’s a very, very difficult walk.”

The day marked perhaps the biggest setback for Avenatti, even after clawing through a turbulent six months in which he’s gone to war with the president and taken his share of beatings from conservatives.

The trial attorney has long sold himself as a champion to women and to immigrants, some of whom he has represented in border separation cases.

It could prove to be defining for Avenatti: He has positioned himself as the Democrats’ answer to Trump, but whether he can slide out of controversies the same way remains to be seen.

Avenatti seemed to employ his megaphone somewhat effectively, pivoting from the remarks later in the day to blasting Sen. Chuck Grassley and Republicans for trying to intimidate his client.

“. @ChuckGrassley - let’s start the investigation tonight,” he wrote on Twitter. “I will make my client available for a sworn interview and you can make Judge Kavanaugh available for a sworn interview. We also have 9 other witnesses we want interviewed and specific documents we want requested. Let’s go.”

The tweet came well after his “white male” remarks, and within 10 minutes it was retweeted nearly 5,000 times.

Avenatti has repeatedly painted himself as the true fighter in a crowd of potential presidential candidates, saying that even if he wouldn’t make the better president, no one who has stepped forward so far has proven tough enough to beat Trump.

Avenatti has taken concrete steps toward exploring a presidential run, including traveling to early primary states to headline fundraisers. He also has held meetings with Democratic Party leaders. He recently launched The Fight PAC, allowing him to pay for his operation and steer funds to candidates he’s supporting.

He was accused of bringing a circus atmosphere to the Kavanaugh hearings after his client, Swetnick, alleged that Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge were present at parties where they got teenage girls drunk and where “gang rapes” occurred. On Thursday, Grassley referred Avenatti and Swetnick to the Justice Department for an investigation into whether the two made false statements to Congress.

Though Avenatti’s involvement in the Kavanaugh hearings was largely seen as his latest step onto the national stage, members of the Democratic establishment are reportedly leery of the lawyer’s combative approach to politics. His “white male” comments drew condemnation from liberal quarters.

Critics said that his remark revealed that he is out of touch with Democratic values. Former National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor took to Twitter to remind Avenatti of the former official leader of the Democratic Party.

“Barack Obama was president for eight years, jackass,” Vietor wrote .

Others claimed that Avenatti’s comment was a ploy to seem palatable to white voters.

“Performative White Boy ‘Wokeness,’ Exhibit 6127742398742384,” wrote Jess Morales Rocketto, chairwoman of the Families Belong Together immigrant rights coalition. “Michael Avenatti is not a Democrat, he is an Ambulance Chasing Opportunist.”

“Sweetie, no,” added Charlotte Clymer, an LGBTQ rights activist from the Human Rights Campaign. “I don’t support white male supremacy in any form, and that includes using it to pander to bigots for votes. This is beyond ridiculous and cowardly. Goodbye.”