Porn star Stormy Daniels said that her attorney and potential 2020 presidential candidate Michael Avenatti has what it takes to be a politician, but refrained from endorsing him when asked Monday evening.
“I think he's definitely cut out to be a politician,” Daniels said during an interview with CNN’s Don Lemon. “He's made a lot of difference in a lot of lives. I definitely think he's got the charisma and the smarts to do it. I'm not going to say if I'm going to endorse him or not because I want to know who the other candidates are.”
“Besides, maybe I'll run against him,” Daniels joked. “Somewhere, Michael Avenatti just fainted.”
Avenatti first announced in July that he was weighing running if “there is no other candidate in the race that has a REAL chance beating” Trump. In August, he said during the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards that he was “seriously” considering running and said that he believed he has a “real shot” if he chooses to run.
“I’ve been really surprised at how much enthusiasm there is out there for the potential,” Avenatti said in August during the VMAs. “So, I’m going to make a decision — I want to be smart about it, deliberative.”
Daniels has been embroiled in a legal battle with Trump this year over an alleged extramarital affair, which Trump has denied. Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to eight counts in August, paid her $130,000 in exchange for her silence on the affair, but she filed a lawsuit earlier this year claiming the nondisclosure agreement she signed should be nullified because Trump didn’t sign it. She also sued Trump and Cohen for defamation.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, released a book called Full Disclosure earlier this month, which details her alleged affair with Trump. Trump’s legal team has argued that the lawsuit between Daniels and Trump is now moot following the book’s publication, and requested a Los Angeles federal judge Monday to discard the case.