Michael Avenatti Says He Will Not Run for President

I’m really sorry but I can’t help myself. I must make a dad joke here.

*Clears throat*

More like Michael AveNOTti.

Thank the Lord, we have been spared one of the worst candidacies imaginable. The 2020 Democratic primary is sure to be an all-out brawl filled to the brim with options, but at least we have lost one person who would have surely made the race even crazier. Per Michael Avenatti:

When Avenatti announced he was running for president, Paste’s Roger Sollenberger wrote the following that was a perfect explanation as to why this man crafting himself as another Trump-like figure should not run for president:

Not only is this “takes a Trump” logic a depressingly cynical concession about America’s institutional rot, it’s not logical in that it misunderstands the nature of Trump’s victory in the first place. It’s also lazy, and smacking of an aversion to the serious and necessary work of diagnosing and fixing the many nuanced problems in the Democratic party. Worst of all, it makes a celebrity out of cynicism, another outbreak of the epidemic of political negligence that made a President Trump — and a President Avenatti — possible. And that’s why an Avenatti candidacy would be in one sense worse than Trump: It would be a surrender of seriousness, abandonment of the principles and purpose of the United States government. In other words, it’s an extension of Trumpism.

Sadly, given the state of American politics, it’s far less likely that Avenatti chose not to run not because he realized his candidacy would further along the Trumpening of our politics, but likely because his domestic assault allegation and Trump-like issues with owing money to the IRS and his former partners looked certain to put a drag on his candidacy. Regardless of why Avenatti really dropped out, we dodged a bullet, America. This is cause for celebration.

Jacob Weindling is a staff writer for Paste politics. Follow him on Twitter at @Jakeweindling.