You live and you learn and Michael Avenatti has probably learned to never go on Tucker Carlson’s show again after the Fox News commentator called Stormy Daniels’ attorney “creepy porn lawyer” to his face during an intensive interview on Thursday night. And that was after Carlson said he had no interest in “name-calling.”
Before the sit down began, Carlson explained that Avenatti had agreed to appear “provided we give him time to state his case — and we’re of course happy to do that” and said “as a gesture of goodwill” he wouldn’t be using the “creepy porn lawyer” nickname.
Then the nearly 13-minute interview began, with Carlson telling Avenatti, “We could sit here and hurl insults at each other,” but that he wanted to take the lawyer “seriously” — right before the chyron below them switched to read “CREEPY PORN LAWYER TOYING WITH 2020 RUN.”
Though Carlson had said he didn’t have “an interest in squabbling with you at all or name-calling,” he spent the entire interview trying to talk over his guest and focusing on Avenatti’s political stances and ambitions, instead of talking about the facts of Daniels’ case — which was the reason why Avenatti said he showed up in the first place.
“Tucker, how do you have a show and you’re this ignorant?” Avenatti asked at one point.
Avenatti also asked Carlson why he doesn’t call Trump the “creepy porn president.” “He’s the one that had sex, with a four-month-old son at home, with my client, without a condom,” Avenatti said. “But you don’t want to acknowledge that!”
Carlson conceded that Trump had a “consensual” affair, but would not admit that he had lied about it and accused Avenatti of “exploiting” his client. Avenatti called Carlson a “hypocrite” for slamming his connection to Daniels, but not Trump’s.
Carlson got the final word, signing off with “Creepy porn lawyer, great to see you.”
After the interview, Avenatti tweeted, “This is why so many people correctly conclude that @TuckerCarlson is a liar, just like Trump.”
Watch the interview above, which is not the official Fox News clip of the segment, as the copy the news outlet posted to YouTube cuts off before Carlson’s sign off. Fox did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment on why it had edited that clip.