Michael Avenatti found guilty on 3 counts in Nike trial
Avenatti charged in Nike extortion trial; columnist Mark Steyn reacts.
Tucker Carlson and Mark Steyn reacted on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" Friday to celebrity attorney Michael Avenatti's conviction in a federal case in which he was accused of trying to extort Nike.
Carlson joked that Avenatti, once mooted as a potential 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, is more likely to be behind bars than on a debate stage with other White House contenders.
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"I guess the headline is that man is not going to be the Democratic nominee. He's not going to be giving the State of the Union address next January," Carlson said. "Creepy Porn Lawyer [Avenatti]... came to the end of the road today."
Carlson and Steyn then criticized Avenatti for gallivanting in public wearing expensive suits and engaging in hours of media appearances while one of his former clients, Stormy Daniels, was stuck working in striptease establishments.
"This guy was actually just some sleazy chancer -- as we say in Ireland -- an undoubted criminal, the most reprehensible kind of guy," Steyn said. "If he were really the guy those rubes at CNN took him for he would be laughing at us the same way that that awful [former FBI acting director Andrew] McCabe guy is laughing at us today."
Earlier in the segment, Carlson said that the media owed America an apology for promoting Avenatti, playing off a video clip of MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle saying she owed the attorney an apology for doubting his importance.
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"You owe America an apology for promoting a guy you knew was filthy at the time but because he hated the same person you hate you made him seem like a hero," Carlson said. "You should acknowledge that the guy you made famous is now going to jail for extortion."
Steyn noted that Carlson was the only media figure who had Avenatti pegged from the start, asking: "How was it that [you were] the only person in the media who could see that this guy was just a Creepy Porn Lawyer while everyone else thought this very week he should be standing on stage somewhere in Concord, New Hampshire, thanking everyone for his victory on primary night, because he was supposed to be the magic bullet that would take out Donald Trump?"
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