Tucker Carlson sparred Thursday night with Michael Avenatti, the attorney he has repeatedly called a ‘creepy porn lawyer’ for his sometimes over-the-top advocacy for Donald Trump antagonist and adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
The Fox News Channel host tossed the epithet into his broadcast after promising not to, and his network treated viewers to on-screen ‘chyron’ captions including ‘Creepy Porn Lawyer Toying with 2020 run’ and ‘Does American Want Creepy Porn Lawyer as Pres?’
Avenatti has trekked to Iowa and New Hampshire amid buzz that could he use his high visibility to challenge President Trump for the White House in two years.
Avenatti went on the warpath after he left Carlson’s studio, tweeting that his on-screen treatment ‘was a disgrace. Complete garbage – trash television. A new low.’
Carlson focused on Avenatti’s elevated profile as a TV personality who has appeared on CNN and MSNBC ‘literally hundreds of times,’ contrasting his ‘thousand-dollar suit’ with Daniels’ fate dancing in ‘seedy’ strip clubs with tattered reputation in tow.
Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson (left) clobbered Stormy Daniels attorney Michael Avenatti (right) on Thursday night, saying he’s an exploiter of women
Daniels is an adult film actress who claims to have had an affair with Donald trump more than a decade ago and accepted a $130,000 payoff to remain silent about it
Fox News put ‘chyron’ graphics on-screen Thursday that identified Avenatti as ‘Creepy Porn Lawyer,’ and later just ‘CPL’ for short; that’s a nickname Carlson has tossed at him in the past
‘You’ve profited from Stormy Daniels. You’ve gotten tens of millions of dollars worth of free media on the basis of your relationship with her and she’s working in strip clubs. You’re exploiting her and you know that. Why aren’t you paying her some of what you’re making?’ he asked.
‘Why is it that her life has stalled and your life has – you’re planning a new career as a politician and like so many lawyers, you are taking advantage of her.’
‘You’re an exploiter of a woman and you should be ashamed of it,’ he added, calling Avenatti a fake feminist.
‘You’re exploiting her and you know it!’ he exclaimed.
Avenatti shot back that Carlson appeared to object to pornography, hinting that he likely had no moral platform to judge.
‘When was the last time you saw porn?’ he jabbed?
‘You busted me,’ Carlson responded without missing a beat, ‘Actually, maybe humiliation porn. That’s why I watch you on CNN.’
Avenatti was initially frustrated at Carlson’s insistence on discussing geopolitics instead of Daniels’ alleged sexual affair with the president in 2006 and 2007.
Carlson mocked Avenatti for considering a White House bid and said he was throwing around ‘reckless rhetoric’ about Russia that could endanger the country
Trump and Daniels are pictured in 2006, around thetime she says she bedded him during a golf tournament
Carlson reminded him that he had claimed Russia’s interference with America’s 2016 election was comparable to Vladimir Putin putting 100,000 troops on the U.S. border.
He called that unpresidential, ‘reckless rhetoric.’
‘I stand by my words,’ Avenatti replied. ‘And I think for you to lecture me about reckless rhetoric is ironic.’
When Avenatti finally lost patience with being called ‘creepy porn lawyer,’ he exploded at Carlson.
‘Why is it that you don’t call Donald Trump the “creepy porn president”?’ he asked.
‘He’s the one that had sex, with a four-month-old son at home, with my client, without a condom. But you don’t want to acknowledge that.’
Closing the interview, Carlson looked down the barrel of the camera and intoned: ‘Creepy porn lawyer, great to see you.’