CNN’s chief media correspondent Brian Stelter asked a panelist on his show whether it was wrong of him to promote now-convicted fraudster Michael Avenatti as a potentially “serious” presidential candidate.
“Avenatti has just been convicted on three accounts for alleged extortion and other crimes,” Stelter said Sunday on CNN. “I’ve been getting some grief from Sean Hannity this weekend, speaking of Fox, right, from Hannity for one suggesting that Avenatti could be a serious candidate for president.
“Give me a media critique,” Stelter asked Daily Beast reporter Lachlan Markay. “Was that stupid on my part?”
Lachlan told Stelter that a “distressing” characteristic of the president was his ability to “Trumpify” his opposition. He said that Avenatti, who was at one point considering joining the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, was an example of this occurrence.
Avenatti was found guilty Friday of attempting to extort Nike out of millions of dollars. He still faces more criminal charges in California, in addition to his conviction in New York.
CNN’s chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin admitted Saturday the disgraced lawyer had “snookered” him into taking him “seriously.”
“It was like walking with a major, major celebrity,” Toobin said about taking Avenatti to lunch.
“And at the peak of this, he even announced he was considering running for president, and he went to Iowa, he went to New Hampshire,” he added. “And to call it hubris … doesn’t do it justice. I mean, the craziness of this.”
