Michael Avenatti Says He's Considering Running For President
KING: An interesting, some might use a different word, but let's call it an interesting new addition today to the long list of 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls using 2018 as a test track of sorts. Michael Avenatti is in Iowa. You know him from the TV. He's attorney for adult film actress Stormy Daniels. He calls President Trump a liar. He calls his long time fixer Michael Cohen an idiot. Yesterday, you see him right there at the Iowa State fair. That's a traditional walking tour, face time with potential voters. Tonight Avenatti has the stage. He's the lead speaker at a Democratic fundraising event. He'll test his theory that voters will be looking outside the box as they pick someone to challenge the current outside the box incumbent.</s>MICHAEL AVENATTI, STORMY DANIELS' ATTORNEY: I'm here to listen to the great people of Iowa, explore the fair, and figure out if makes sense to run for presidency or not. I do think I could beat the President in a general election. And I think there's a number reason for that. I think that it's going to be a brutal campaign. I think it's going to require a fighter. I think it's going to require somebody that's scrappy. And I think it's going to require someone to engage in a significant cage match for the future of this country.</s>KING: Cage match but I yield the floor. What do we make of this?</s>LERER: I'm really, really tired thinking about the Democratic field for 2020 already. I think this is --</s>KING: Which one of the 25 or 26?</s>LERER: Twenty-five. I think when you start counting the ones who will flirt with the bid to raise their profile, which may be what Mr. Avenatti is doing here. I mean, 25, I think might be a lowball number. So, we all should get -- you're going to need a lot of graphs and charts, moving maps to keep track of them all. John.</s>KING: So, your first instinct is to laugh, right? Forgive me, Mr. Avenatti. But your first instinct is to laugh. A guy with no political experience. A guy who's been on TV, going after the President, the Stormy Daniels case. But then, wait a minute, Donald Trump had no experience, a lot of people laughed, said reality TV star, this is just to raise his profile. This is about his ego. Not about serious. I believe his the President of the United States.</s>RAJU: The one thing that Democratic base is going to be looking for is someone who's going to go after the President, toe to toe. Fight him tooth and nail. And that's going to be a real interesting way to see how the Democratic field shapes up because there will be some who naturally because of their personalities will not necessarily want to go as far as a lot of folks on the left want to go, which would be to impeach and then convict the President. And there -- so others well, may be more moderate in their approach to the President. Michael Avenatti clearly is not. So, maybe he does appeal to that segment of the base.</s>KING: To that point, some kind -- we'll see if he's successful or not. We'll see if he actually runs or not. But sometimes people who get in a race or at least or around in the pre game of a race do influence other candidates even if they do well. Here's Michael Avenatti. You remember Michelle Obama, if they go high, we go low. I believe we cannot be the party any longer the turns the other cheeks. When they go low, I say we hit harder.</s>ELIANA JOHNSON, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, POLITICO: Look that clearly has been his strategy. The question in my mind about Avenatti is Trump was able to self-fund. I don't think Avenatti would be able to self- fund at the same level. At the same time, he's gotten an enormous amount of free media. And he does -- and he's taken a lot of shots at the President. It's not clear to me that any of them have really landed. So, I don't think he has a great track record from which to run.</s>KING: Would you want to be one of his clients right now? In the sense that this is already come up during the Michael Cohen proceedings in New York where there was a question about whether Avenatti should be barred because he's always on television. And there was this no person involved in this action has been more ubiquitous in the media than Michael Avenatti. That was from a Federal judge who did give the order but who kind of told this to Avenatti to dial it back. Now, anything he says in court for any client can be questioned as politically motivated, right?</s>VISER: Yes. And I think you're seeing the transition of his career, at this moment from a court-time lawyer to somebody arguing in public. But I do think that it illustrates the wide openness of this Democratic field, the fact that we will think about and talk about, and then will get written about the fact that Michael Avenatti is going to Iowa.</s>KING: So, to that point, let's be fair. The worker bees get frustrated when these "Celebrity candidates" get attention. There's a Congressman, Mr. Delaney, who's been at Iowa over and over and over again. He doesn't get a lot of attention. Today, a Republican shows up at the Iowa State fair to help Congressman Delaney get a little attention. We have the picture, I hope. The former Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner, shorts and boat shoes. He says Delaney is one of hi s old buds and showing up for -- a former Republican Speaker showing up to the Iowa State fair for a Democratic Congressman. OK.</s>RAJU: John Boehner is loving life right now. That's for sure. I don't think we'll see expect Delaney/Boehner 2020. That's probably a little bit of a stretch.</s>KING: Sure.</s>LERER: But nobody knows. We're in an era with new political rules.</s>KING: Right.</s>LERER: Nobody quite knows what they are. So, you will see a lot of Democrats to just sort throwing out their theory of the case, throwing it up against the wall, and taking their shot.</s>KING: And John Boehner happily --</s>LERER: And we'll see who Paul Ryan shows up with.</s>KING: Who just Paul Ryan. So</s>LERER: Right.</s>KING: Up next for us, one year after Charlottesville, Kanye West, Spike Lee both on television saying very different things about President Trump and race.