Page 14 - Time Magazine-November 05, 2018

had purchased Tully’s as part of a scheme part of their custody agreement, Storie- “Michael has picked up the corpse of the
to avoid millions in tax payments. Nold al- Avenatti asked that her husband be ac- Democratic Party and breathed some life
leged that Avenatti used payments from companied by a nanny whenever he had into it.”
Global Baristas to pay for the lawyers visitation time with their son. One of the A run for President would thrust
representing Eagan Avenatti in its bank- last times he’d been alone with the child, Avenatti into the middle of the party’s
ruptcy proceedings. The California state she claimed, he sent the boy home alone identity crisis. The Democrats have not
bar referred the complaint for investiga- with his driver, with no car seat. been this powerless since the 1920s, and
tion in April, according to documents re- “I have no desire to publicly attack the their members have responded by nomi-
viewed by TIME. Nold and the California mother of my son,” Avenatti says in re- nating a historic number of women and
bar declined to comment. sponse. “But suffice it to say that I dis- people of color for office. But when it
Although Washington State docu- agree with her characterizations.” Storie- comes to the party’s presidential nomi-
ments list Avenatti as the sole governor Avenatti told TIME that the divorce is nee in 2020, Avenatti thinks in different
of Global Baristas LLC, Avenatti says he “not near finalized,” and declined fur- terms. “I think it better be a white male,”
sold the company for $27 million “a long ther comment. he says. He hastens to add that he wishes
time ago” (he doesn’t remember when) Home may be L.A., but Avenatti lives it weren’t so, but it’s undeniable that peo-
and had nothing to do with the company’s most of his nomadic existence on the road, ple listen to white men more than they do
recent issues. He denies he hid any loans preferably in five-star hotels. In June he others; it’s why he’s been successful rep-
from Dempsey. As for theNold complaint, met with TIME at the Park Hyatt on resenting Daniels and immigrant moth-
Avenatti says that it was unfounded and 57th Street in Manhattan. He had come ers, he says. “When you have a white male
that Nold had an ax to grind because of the to town to accompany Daniels to an inter- making the arguments, they carry more
Tully’s suit. (In the Tully’s suit, Avenatti view with the local U.S. attorney’s office, weight,” he says. “Should they carry more
notes, Nold was fined $20,000 for con- but the feds canceled at the last minute, weight? Absolutely not. But do they? Yes.”
tempt of court for spreading misinforma- leaving him fuming. His suite was strewn Beneath the pugnacious persona, Av-
tion about him during the proceedings.) with legal papers as well as a pair of enatti’s own political instincts are rather
He says he has filed a complaint against strappy black high heels. Asked who they conventional. He’s for Medicare for all but
Nold in Washington State. “He’ll be lucky belonged to, he joked, “Ivanka—wouldn’t against abolishing ICE, and fears Dem-
if he has a license to practice law in three that be a story?” ocrats are overreaching on immigration.
months,” Avenatti says. Later, over lunch at the Manhattan res- In his speeches, he advocates secure bor-
taurant Michael’s, Avenatti was asked if ders and calls on Democrats to woo back
AvenAtti’s prActice fed an extrava- he considered himself a bully. He didn’t Midwestern white men. His platform’s
gant lifestyle, including a $19million New- try to whitewash it. “Look, I can be ag- major plank, he says, would be a mas-
port Beach mansion, two private jets and gressive at times,” he says. “I didn’t get to sive government-funded infrastructure
collections of high-end watches and art. where I am by being a pushover, O.K.?” push. “You can’t go into Youngstown,
He competed in more than 30 professional But like Trump, he prides himself on fin- Ohio, and tell everybody they’re going to
sports-car races and counted two Ferraris ishing fights other people start. “I don’t be retrained and go work for Google or
as part of his fleet. “We formerly owned generally go after people offensively,” Av- Apple,” he says. But he was vague on the
several other race cars. I do not know if we enatti says, “but if somebody comes after details, like whether he would raise taxes
own any race cars at the present time,” his me,Iwillabsolutelymeetthemeverystep to pay for it. “I’m not afraid to say I don’t
second wife, Lisa Storie-Avenatti, wrote of the way and then some, no question.” know yet,” he demurs.
in a divorce filing after he left her and When Avenatti started thinking about If the Avenatti boomlet is real, so too
their then 3-year-old son in October 2017. running for President, his first call was is the fact that many Democrats have lit-
(Avenatti also has two teenage daughters to David Betras, a lawyer in Youngstown, tle appetite for his antics. Some accuse
from his first marriage.) He moved into a Ohio, and chairman of the Mahoning him of sealing Kavanaugh’s confirmation:
$14,000-per-month apartment after the County Democratic Party. In May 2016, Swetnick’s claims were repeatedly cited
split and didn’t leave her enough cash to Betras had noticed blue collar whites in by Senate Republicans, including the
pay the electric bill, she said in the filing, the region gravitating to Trump, and he key swing vote, Susan Collins of Maine,
which estimates the family’s monthly drafted a memo to Hillary Clinton’s cam- as self-evidently absurd, and Avenatti’s
costs—including a staff of nannies and paign, warning that she was in danger of role as discrediting. But these are dan-
housekeepers, as well as an assistant and losing states like Pennsylvania, Michigan gerous times to ignore the power of des-
a driver—at more than $200,000. and Ohio. After Trump won, Betras had perate partisans. As Republicans have dis-
Avenatti, his second wife wrote, “is a brief star turn as the man who’d pre- covered, outsiders sometimes see things
hot-tempered and used to having his dicted it all. the Establishment can’t: its blind spots,
way—when he doesn’t, he gets extremely In July, Avenatti flew to eastern Ohio its assumptions, its blithe confidence in
loud and verbally aggressive.” In one De- for dinner with Betras, then returned a hollow status quo. Even Avenatti’s crit-
cember 2017 incident, he showed up for his first political appearance, an an- ics have to concede he’s won many of the
and demanded to be let into the New- nual dinner for local Democrats. “When battles he’s taken up so far. He fights, and
port Beach house, leading the police to I look at the national Democratic Party, he wins: to many of the beleaguered party
be called, according to her legal filing. As I see weakness. I see fear,” Betras says. faithful, that may be enough. 
85