Michael Avenatti clumsily claims white privilege – and liberals are completely outraged

The attorney, made famous by his adult film worker client who sued President Donald Trump, is in the middle of a firestorm of outrage over his comments about white male privilege.

'It better be a white male'

Michael Avenatti is being assailed as a racist over his comments asserting that society gives credence to statements from white males over other people — a concept many liberals assert as "white privilege."

But they are not as accepting of how Avenatti formulated it in an interview about his intention to run for the presidency in 2020.

“I think it better be a white male,” he said to Time magazine.

The author of the article makes it clear that Avenatti wishes it weren't the case that white males have privilege, but that he had used it to his advantage to help his clients.

“When you have a white male making the arguments, they carry more weight,” Avenatti explained. “Should they carry more weight? Absolutely not."

"But do they?" he asked. "Yes.”

Avenatti has been a dogged critic of the president but many in the media and the left have turned on him after his attack on Justice Brett Kavanaugh appeared to propel the nomination instead of prevent it, as he had intended.

'White supremacy and the patriarchy'

That short quote was all it took for many thought leaders on the left to declare Avenatti persona non grata.

Symone Sanders, the former national press secretary for the presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), called Avenatti "the personification of 'progressives' who still traffic in white supremacy and the patriarchy."

Black Lives Matter leader Shaun King was more explicit in his condemnation of Avenatti.

"Let me be unmistakably clear on something," King tweeted. "F**K @MichaelAvenatti."

"This man is a clown," he added. "And now we are learning he’s also a sexist bigot."

"Yes, [Michael Avenatti] said the quiet part out loud," responded Rolling Stone writer Jamil Smith. "Many Democrats probably agree."

"But particularly as a white man who is considering a presidential run," Smith added, "he showed an unwillingness to challenge the system that would benefit him directly. That is cowardice."

Avenatti responds.

"This is outrageous," Avenatti responded to Shaun King. "You did nothing to check this. You did not even bother to review a single speech I have given across this country — 50 times over the last few months — where I discuss this issue."

"Let me be clear," he adds in another tweet. "I have consistently called on white males like me to step, take responsibility, and be a part of stoping [sic] the sexism and bigotry that other white males engage in. It is especially important for them to call out other white males. I make this pt in my speeches."

Avenatti was also hit with the news Thursday that he was being criminally referred to the Department of Justice over contradictory statements made by his client in his attempt to tank the Kavanaugh nomination.