Page 12 - Time Magazine-November 05, 2018

put on by Iowa Democrats. The assem-
bled press smirked as he took the stage,
Avenatti recalls. But after his fiery ora-
tion brought the house down, the report-
ers “were just ashen,” he says. “I took tre-
mendous pride in that moment.”
Avenatti says he’s far from making any
kind of decision about his political future.
“I keep waiting to go to one of these events
and to come away with a negative thought
as to whether I should do this,” he says,
but every time “it puts me a little closer
to actually doing it.”
None of this would be happening if
Avenatti hadn’t met Daniels. Avenatti
has never revealed how their connection
came about. In multiple interviews, it was
virtually the only topic he refused to dis-
cuss. According to Daniels’ new book,Full
Disclosure, she called several other law-
yers first, but they didn’t seem to take her
seriously. When she finally got one who
seemed willing to take the case, the law-
yer, whom she doesn’t name, canceled at
the last minute and sent “an associate” in
his place, leading Daniels to feel that she
was being “dumped onto some ... junior
attorney.” That was Avenatti.
They met for the first time in the lounge
at the Waldorf Astoria in L.A., where
Avenatti lives. To turn around Daniels’
case, Avenatti proposed an aggressive
media push. He arranged a blockbuster
60 Minutes interview and set about tor-
^ menting Trump and Cohen on cable and
sure everyone around him knows it. His Avenatti is considering running Twitter. The strategy was a success: Dan-
chiseledjawseems perpetually jutted for- against Trump in 2020 iels is not only a household name but also
ward, his wiry frame coiled. Veins bulge a hero to millions of women, who now rou-
on the temples of his egg-shaped head. left, Avenatti believes, it’s not pol- tinely outnumber men at her strip shows.
Avenatti and Trump have taken oppo- icy or personality that’s most enticing. If the strategy had the added benefit of
site approaches to hair loss, and perhaps It’s winning. making Avenatti famous, he says that was
it says everything or nothing about the Rick Wilson, the Trump-loathing only to help his client. “The people that
contrast between the two men that one GOP consultant and author of Every- arecriticalof our media strategygenerally
constructed the world’s most aggressive thing Trump Touches Dies, agrees that it fall into one of two camps,” he says. “Ei-
comb-over while the other eliminated the will take a media-savvy fighter, not a tra- ther they’re jealous or they’re extremely
issue entirely. ditional pol, to beat the President. “You’ve concerned.”
Avenatti admits that he wouldn’t nec- got to be brave to go up against Trump,”
essarily be a great President. At least Wilson says. “Avenatti’s got balls. Giant, AvenAtti teAmed up with Daniels at
one of his possible Democratic primary clanking, titanium balls.” (Wilson recently a particularly challenging moment in
opponents would make a better one, met with Avenatti; when asked if they dis- his peripatetic life. Born in Sacramento,
he says. “But if they can’t beat Don- cussed working on a potential campaign, he had a comfortable but transient up-
ald Trump, it doesn’t matter.” This is he declined to comment.) bringing. The family moved often for his
Avenatti’s whole argument: the Demo- At this point, Avenatti’s political views father’s job as an Anheuser-Busch man-
crats have “a lot of talent, but not a lot appear a mile wide but an inch deep. On ager, landing in the suburbs of St. Louis
of fighters.” If they opt for the type of issues like taxes, his prospective platform by the time he was a teenager. His most
pedigreed candidate both parties of- is TBD. What he does have is raw appeal. formative experience, he says, was see-
fered in 2016, they will get flattened by In early August, he made one of his first ing his father get laid off in 1989 after
Hurricane Trump. For the demoralized political stops, at the storied Wing Ding 30 years of loyal service. “That was his
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