Left-wing attorney Michael Avenatti, a likely 2020 presidential candidate, faces a mounting backlash after reportedly saying the Democratic Party’s nominee “better be a white male.”
“I think it better be a white male,” Avenatti told Time Magazine in a profile that ran on Thursday. “When you have a white male making the arguments, they carry more weight. Should they carry more weight? Absolutely not. But do they? Yes.”
Avenatti denied making the comment and called Time’s reporting “complete bullshit” in an interview with The Daily Caller News Foundation. (Time is standing by their reporting.)
“Let me be clear: I have consistently called on white males like me to step, take responsibility, and be a part of stoping the sexism and bigotry that other white males engage in,” Avenatti added on Twitter. “It is especially important for them to call out other white males.”
Avenatti’s attempts to mollify the left’s anger may not be enough. (RELATED: Judiciary Chairman Refers Avenatti And His Client To DOJ Over Kavanaugh Claims)
“You perpetuated a myth of supremacy, do you get that? Do you understand how that makes nonwhite males feel?” CNN commentator Bakari Sellers replied in a tweet to Avenatti.
“Your theory of white male supremacy is easily disproved. Who is a better lawyer, Cochran or Avenatti? A better politician Obama or Avenatti?” Sellers asked, adding that he is “furious and disappointed.”
You perpetuated a myth of supremacy, do you get that? Do you understand how that makes nonwhite males feel?
Your theory of white male supremacy is easily disproved. Who is a better lawyer, Cochran or Avenatti? A better politician Obama or Avenatti?
I’m furious and disappointed. https://t.co/XugOrhHxBA
— Bakari Sellers (@Bakari_Sellers) October 25, 2018
“Michael Avenatti is the personification of ‘progressives’ who still traffic in white supremacy and the patriarchy,” wrote CNN commentator Symone Sanders.
(L-R) Jonathan Capehart, Michael Avenatti, and Kathy Griffin speak onstage during Politicon 2018 at Los Angeles Convention Center on October 20, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Politicon)
“Let me be unmistakably clear on something,” left-wing activist and writer Shaun King wrote on Twitter, before sending a four-letter insult Avenatti’s way.
“Here he just said that the 2020 Democratic nominee ‘better be a white male,’ King continued. “This man is a clown. He’s Better Call Saul. And now we are learning he’s also a sexist bigot.”
Radio host Roland Martin demanded Avenatti come on his show to explain the comment. “He says he never said it. But he needs to come talk to Black media. I’ve DM’d him. Waiting to hear back. This IS A PROBLEM,” Martin wrote.
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